Today, Banco de Portugal publishes statistics, in Tables A.16 and A.17 of the Statistical Bulletin and in BPstat, on balance of payments for September 2018.
Today, Banco de Portugal publishes statistics, in Tables A.16 and A.17 of the Statistical Bulletin and in BPstat, on balance of payments for September 2018.
In the first nine months of the year, the combined current and capital account balance stood at €463 million, compared with €1,576 million in the same period in 2017 (Chart 1).
These developments were chiefly due to the primary income and goods accounts (Chart 2).
Up to September 2018, the primary income account deficit reached €5,206 million (compared with €4,296 million in the same period in 2017). The combined effect of a decline in interest received from abroad and an increase in dividends paid to non-residents in Portugal contributed to this increase in the deficit.
Compared with the same period in 2017, the goods and services accounts had different developments.
While the goods account deficit increased by €1,465 million, the services account surplus grew by €1,077 million, mostly due to ‘Travel’, whose balance went from €8,314 million to €9,363 million (Chart 3).
Up to September, exports of goods and services grew by 6.9% (6.8% in goods and 7.1% in services). Imports increased by 7.9% (8.6% in goods and 4.9% in services).
In the first nine months of 2018, the financial account balance saw an increase in net foreign assets in Portugal of €865 million (Chart 4). During this period, there was a decline in central bank liabilities vis-à-vis the Eurosystem and an increase in financial sector assets, with an investment in debt securities issued by non-residents. In turn, there was an increase in liabilities, mostly due to investment by non-residents in the equity of resident non-financial corporations.
Next update: 19 Dec. 2018