Prince Henri Auditoire 02 BW

Balance of payments of Luxembourg for the first quarter of 2016

24.06.2016
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The Central Bank of Luxembourg (BCL) and STATEC inform that the current account recorded a surplus of 509 million euros for the first quarter of 2016, compared to 854 million during the same period of the previous year, corresponding to a decrease of 345 million.

The trade deficit widened significantly (-483 million euros between 2015Q1 and 2016Q1). Indeed, the 307 million increase of the general merchandise balance (including non-monetary gold) was not able to offset the strong decline in net exports of merchanting (-790 million). This development is the result of business model changes in e-commerce. These had virtually no impact on the current account balance but led to redistribution between flows of goods and services. For the latter, imports fell by 318 million euros (-2% between 2015Q1 and 2016Q1), while exports rose by 407 million (+2%). The international trade in services surplus soared well over 17% (+750 million euros). Financial services did not contribute as usual, since their surplus decreased by 4.5% between 2015Q1 and 2016Q1 (-162 million euros) due to more volatile financial markets in early 2016.

In the financial account, in the first quarter 2016, the net repurchases of collective investment shares and to a lesser extent, the repayments of debt securities resulted in net outflows of 16 billion euros in the portfolio investments. The direct investments and the financial derivative recorded respectively net outflows of 4 billion and 5 billion euros in the first quarter 2016. These outflows were largely compensated by inflows of 26 billion euros in the other investments (loans and traditional deposits).

Detailed statistical tables are available on BCL’s website (www.bcl.lu) as well as on the website of STATEC (www.statistiques.public.lu).

Table: Balance of payments of Luxembourg (in millions of euros)Table BOP EN

For further information, please contact

  • STATEC         at 247-84362 or 84393
  • BCL                at 4774-4265 or 4243