2020-04-14
Today, the Bank of Lithuania published the balance of payments for February 2020, which shows that:
the €194.4 million surplus on the current account balance (CAB) resulted from the surplus balances of services and secondary income that were not offset by the negative balances of foreign trade and primary income (see Chart 1). Exports and imports of services increased (by 6.6% and 3.3% respectively). The surplus on the balance of services amounted to €358.5 million. Since the imports of goods grew faster than exports (1.9% and 1.4% respectively), the deficit on the trade balance grew by 9.8% and reached €126.6 million;
the surplus on the secondary income balance increased 3.9 times over the month. This was mainly attributable to the fact that transfers from EU funds increased by 65.3% (in February they amounted to €34.3 million), while Lithuania’s calculated contributions to the EU budget decreased by 40.0% (in February they comprised €40.4 million). Private individual remittances from abroad amounted to €82.7 million, a month-on-month decrease of 3.8%. Private individual remittances from Lithuania amounted to €30.6 million, a month-on-month decrease of 4.8%;
the positive net flow of financial account investment (€591.0 million) resulted from the positive net flow of portfolio investment, which formed due to the redemption of government Eurobond issue and an increase in official reserve assets (see Chart 2).
Chart 1. CAB and its composite flows
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Chart 2. Net financial account investment flows
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Comprehensive balance of payments data are also published on the Bank of Lithuania website.
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