- In June 2019 the current account of the euro area recorded a surplus of €18 billion, compared with a surplus of €30 billion in May 2019.[1]
- In the 12-month period to June 2019, the current account recorded a surplus of €318 billion (2.7% of euro area GDP), down from €391 billion (3.4% of euro area GDP) in the 12 months to June 2018.
- In the financial account, euro area residents made net acquisitions of foreign portfolio investment securities totalling €58 billion in the 12-month period to June 2019 (decreasing from €484 billion in the 12-month period to June 2018). Non-residents’ net purchases of euro area portfolio investment securities amounted to €42 billion (down from €249 billion).
The current account of the euro area recorded a surplus of €18 billion in June 2019, a decrease of €12 billion from the previous month (see Chart 1 and Table 1). Surpluses were recorded for goods (€25 billion), primary income (€4 billion) and services (€3 billion). These were partly offset by a deficit for secondary income(€14 billion).
Data for the current account of the euro area
In the 12 months to June 2019, the current account recorded a surplus of €318 billion (2.7% of euro area GDP), compared with a surplus of €391 billion (3.4% of euro area GDP) in the 12-month period to June 2018. This decline was driven by smaller surpluses for goods (down from €318 billion to €290 billion), services (down from €117 billion to €96 billion) and primary income (down from €94 billion to €91 billion), as well as by a larger deficit for secondary income (up from €138 billion to €159 billion).
In direct investment, euro area residents made net disinvestments of €316 billion in non-euro area assets in the 12-month period to June 2019, compared with net investments of €85 billion in the 12 months to June 2018 (see Chart 2 and Table 2). Non-residents also made net disinvestments in the euro area, of €246 billion, compared with net disinvestments of €98 billion in the 12-month period to June 2018.
In portfolio investment, net acquisitions of foreign debt securities by euro area residents decreased to €91 billion in the 12-month period to June 2019, from €319 billion in the 12-month period to June 2018. Over the same period, euro area residents switched from net purchases of foreign equity (€166 billion) to net sales of €33 billion. Non-residents’ net purchases of euro area equity fell to €62 billion in the 12 months to June 2019, down from €354 billion in the 12-month period to June 2018. At the same time, their net sales of euro area debt securities decreased from €105 billion to €19 billion.
Data for the financial account of the euro area
In other investment, euro area residents’ net acquisitions of foreign assets increased to €318 billion in the 12 months to June 2019 (up from €229 billion in the 12-month period to June 2018). Furthermore, their net incurrence of liabilities decreased to €81 billion from €335 billion.
The monetary presentation of the balance of payments (see Chart 3) shows that the net external assets of euro area MFIs increased by €295 billion in the 12-month period to June 2019. This increase was driven mainly by the euro area’s current and capital accounts surplus and, to a lesser extent, by non‑MFIs’ net inflows in portfolio investment equity and direct investment. This was partly offset by euro area non-MFIs’ net outflows in portfolio investment debt securities.
In June 2019 the Eurosystem’s stock of reserve assets increased to €770.8 billion, up from €751.2 billion in the previous month (see Table 3). This increase of €19.6 billion was driven by positive price changes of monetary gold, which were only partly offset by net sales of assets and negative exchange rate changes.
