Greek current account balance in surplus between January-September

Greece’s current account recorded a surplus of 1.3 billion euros in the January-September 2017 period, double the surplus recorded in the same period of the previous year, the Bank of Greece said on Monday.

The central bank, in a monthly report, noted that this development reflected improvements mainly in the services balance and, to a lesser extent, the primary and the secondary income account, which more than offset an increase in the deficit of the balance of goods. A widening in the deficit of the balance of goods is mostly the result of a rise in the deficit on the oil balance. It should be noted that non-oil exports of goods increased by 8.7 pct and 5.8 pct at current and constant prices, respectively. A rise in the surplus of the services balance is attributable to an improvement in all of its main components. More specifically, as regards the travel balance, both non-residents’ arrivals and the corresponding receipts grew by 10.3 pct. Moreover, transport receipts rose by 17.1 pct.

In the January-September 2017 period, under direct investment, residents’ external assets grew by 381 million euros and the corresponding liabilities by 3.0 billion. Under portfolio investment, a net decrease in residents’ external assets reflects mainly a drop of 8.3 billion euros in residents’ holdings of foreign bonds and Treasury bills, while a net decline in liabilities mainly reflects a decrease of 2.0 billion in non-residents’ holdings of Greek government bonds and Treasury bills.

Under other investment, a net drop in residents’ assets largely reflects a decline of 2.2 billion euros in residents’ deposit and repo holdings abroad.

At the end of September 2017, Greece’s reserve assets fell to 6.6 billion euros, compared with 6.8 billion at end-September 2016.