N.º 3 • February 2014
Banco de Portugal publishes the Balance of
Payments and International Investment Position
statistics for 2013
Main results1
In 2013, the net external lending of the Portuguese
economy, measured by the global surplus of the
current and capital accounts, was 4.3 billion euro,
which corresponds to 2.6 per cent of GDP 2. This
surplus occurs after an upward trend observed since
2009 (chart 1).
In the financial account this evolution resulted in an
increase of the Portuguese net external assets of
4.5 billion euro, which represents 2.7 per cent of the
GDP (chart 2).
Chart 2
Financial account by institutional sector*
30
Chart 1
25
20
Current and capital account
As % GDP
15
14
As % GDP
10
6
2
5.3 0.3
-2
-5.4
-4.6
-6
-5.8
-6.8
-6.9
-10
-9.2
-9.9
-8.9
-14
-10.1
-4.2
-9.5
6.0
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
-4.3
-3.6
10.2
9.2
7.0
5.7
0.0
0
-2.7
-20
2003
2004
2005
2006
Monetary Authority
General Government
Financial Account
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
Other monetary financial institutions
Other resident sectors
*A positive value corresponds to a net increase of liabilities or to a net decrease of assets. A negative
value corresponds to a net decrease of liabilities or a net increase of assets.
2009
2010
2011
2012
Goods
Services
Income
Current transfers
Capital account
Net external borrowing/lending
2013
1
Data available in tables A.16, A.17, A.18 and chapter C of the Statistical Bulletin, and
in BPstat | Statistics online in the time series and multidimensional analysis.
2
11.3
9.0
-15
2.6
-11.1
2008
9.9
-10
-18
2002
5
9.4
4.5
-5
2.1
2.4
2.3
2.3
10
The GDP estimate for 2013 was computed by Banco de Portugal on the basis of
preliminary information disseminated by Statistics Portugal.
Despite the increase of the Portuguese net external
assets, the Portuguese international investment
position, calculated as the difference of the end-ofperiod stocks of the financial assets and liabilities,
decreased 2.7 percentage points (p.p.) compared to
the position observed at the end of 2012. At the end of
2013, the IIP reached -196.6 billion euro, i.e., -118.9 per
cent of GDP (chart 3). Given that the IIP is measured at
2
STATISTICAL PRESS RELEASE • February 2014
• Gold devaluation, which influenced the monetary
authority reserve assets;
Chart 4
Current and capital account – decomposition of
the annual variation of the total surplus
7
6.1
6
5
3.7
4
3
As % GDP
market value, its evolution is thus influenced not only by
the changes in the external assets and liabilities recorded
in the financial account, but also by changes in price,
exchange rates and other changes of those assets and
liabilities. In 2013, the price changes had a negative
impact on the IIP, which more than offset the increase
of net assets observed in the financial account. These
price changes where mainly brought about by:
2
1.0
0
-0.3
-2
-3
2009
• Positive revaluation of the shares and other equity issued
by resident banks and non-financial corporations and held
by non residents.
Chart 3
2.3
0.70.6
0.1
-1
• Positive revaluation of the debt securities issued by the
Portuguese State and held by non residents;
At the end of 2013 the net external debt stood at
170.4 billion euro, equivalent to 103.0 per cent of
GDP, that is, 0.5 p.p. higher than the one observed
at the end of 2012.
1.1
0.6
1
2010
2011
Goods
Income
Capital account
2012
2013
Services
Current transfers
Year-on-year rate of change
The commercial account (goods and services accounts)
exhibited a surplus throughout most of the months of
the current year. In 2013, this surplus was of 2.8 billion
euro (chart 5), due to a 5.7 per cent increase in goods
and services exports. The imports increased 1.1 per
cent.
Chart 5
International investment position
40%
Commercial account
20%
0%
4,000
-40%
-60%
-55.4%
-58.2% -63.1%
-67.4%
-80%
-78.8%
-120%
-96.1%
-104.8%
-107.2%
-116.1% -118.9%
-140%
2004
2005
2006
2007
Monetary Authorities
General Government
International Investment Position
2008
-4,000
-6,000
2013
-8,000
Other monetary financial institutions
Other resident sectors
-10,000
2009
(-0.1%)
-2,000
-110.6%
2003
-148
0
-88.9%
-100%
2002
2,835
(1.7%)
2,000
10 6 euro
As % GDP
-20%
2010
2011
2012
-6,508
(-3.8%)
-12,000
-12,517
(-7.2%)
-14,000
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
2010
Current and capital account
In 2013, the surplus of the current and capital accounts
increased 2.3 p.p. of GDP compared with the value
observed in 2012. For this increase contributed the
reduction of the goods account deficit, by 1.1 p.p.,
and of the income account deficit, by 0.6 p.p., and
also the increase of the surpluses of the services
account and of the current transfers account by
0.7 p.p. and 0.1 p.p., respectively (chart 4).
May
Jun
2011
Jul
Aug
2012
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
2013
(as % GDP between brackets)
The goods account deficit decreased about 20 per cent,
to -7 billion euro in 2013. This behaviour resulted from
the growth of exports, by 4.9 per cent (representing
47.6 billion euro, more 2.2 billion than the one
observed in 2012), and from the slight decrease of
imports, by 0.8 per cent (representing 54.7 billion euro,
more 0.5 billion than the one observed in 2012).
STATISTICAL PRESS RELEASE • February 2014
The services account registered a surplus of 9.9 billion
euro in 2013, which corresponds to an increase of
1.2 billion euro when compared to 2012. All items of
the services account contributed to this evolution. In
particular, the increase in the travel item surplus
amounted to 0.5 billion euro.
Financial account
In 2013, the net external lending of the Portuguese
economy translated, at the financial account level, into
an increase of the net external assets. In this context,
the other financial monetary institutions recorded
redemption of liabilities which was partially offset by a
decrease in assets in the form of loans and deposits.
The increase observed in the direct investment in
Portuguese non financial corporations in 2013
resulted in a negative contribution of the direct
investment in terms of net external assets.
Regarding the general government sector, it is worth
mentioning the increase of the liabilities in the form
of external loans of about 9.8 billion euro, mainly
associated with the Financial and Economic
Assistance Program, albeit in smaller amounts than
those recorded in the previous year.
3