Surplus on the goods account decreased from €53.4 billion compared to €76.2 billion

The European Union (EU) 2021 third quarter current account balance surplus has dropped to €72.1 billion, which is 2.0 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

This represents a decrease of €31 billion from the 2021 second quarter surplus of €103.1 billion, which was 2.9 per cent of the GDP. This is also €16 billion less than 2020 third quarter current account surplus of €88.1 billion, which was 2.6 per cent of GDP.

The Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat) reports that the surplus of the goods account decreased to €53.4 billion in the third quarter of 2021, down from the €76.2 in the second quarter of 2021. The surplus of the services account increased by €29.7 billion compared to €25.3 billion.

According to Eurostat, “the surplus of the primary income account decreased €5.7 billion compared to €21.2 billion, as did the deficit of the secondary income account went down by €16.7 billion in the third quarter compared the decline of €19.7 billion compared with the previous quarter”.

EU A NET DIRECT INVESTOR TO THE REST OF THE WORLD

The surplus of the capital account rose by €1.2 billion, compared to €0.3 billion booked in the second quarter. Eurostat reports that the non-seasonally adjusted data for the third quarter external current account surpluses with the United Kingdom (+€59.7 billion), the USA (+€32.6 billion), Switzerland (+€23.7 billion), Brazil (+€5.6 billion), Hong Kong (+€5.2 billion), Canada (+€4.7 billion), Japan (+€1.0 billion) and India (+€0.6 billion).

Deficits were registered with China (-€36.5 billion), Russia (-€9.2 billion) and offshore financial centres (-€3.1 billion). Based on non-seasonally adjusted data, direct investment assets of the EU increased in the third quarter of 2021 by €28.3 billion, while direct investment liabilities declined by €73.5 billion.

As a result, the EU was a net direct investor to the rest of the world in the third quarter of 2021 by €101.8 billion. Portfolio investment recorded a net outflow of €12.8 billion and for other investment there was a net inflow of €210.0 billion.