2003-02-12
Key December results.In December 2002, the balance of payments current account deficit (CAD) made up LTL 318.2 million.Compared to November 2002, in went up by LTL 56.5 million, and compared to December 2001, it contracted by nearly LTL 300 million.According to the balance of payments data for October-December, Q4 2002 CAD amounted to LTL 851.5 million, i.e. 6.4 per cent of GDP.According to preliminary estimates, in 2002 the CAD amounted to LTL 2.24 billion, i.e. 4.4 per cent of GDP (in 2001 it made up 4.8 per cent of GDP and 10.1 per cent of GDP in Q4 2001).
According to the data of the Department of Statistics, in December 2002, compared to November, export of goods decreased by 15 per cent, while import went down by 7.3 per cent.The foreign trade deficit went up by LTL 85.5 million.In December 2002, compared to the same period last year, export of goods increased by 16.6 per cent, while import went down by 1.6 per cent.
Positive developments were observed in the services sector.Compared to November 2002, export of services increased in December by 7.6 per cent, while import of services went up by 8.2 per cent.The positive services balance increased by LTL 14.2 million.Compared to December 2001, export of services increased in December 2002 by 17.2 per cent, while import of services declined by 8.2 per cent.The positive services balance improved over the period under comparison by LTL 92.5 million.According to preliminary estimates, Q4 2002 positive balance of services increased by LTL 248 million as compared to the same period of 2001.
Interest payments to non-residents on loans received on behalf of the state and Eurobonds issued by the Government were lower in December 2002 as compared to November, which determined a decrease of the negative income balance.In addition, the positive balance of current transfers increased by LTL 63.4 million compared to November 2002.The above developments (in contrast to the development of the trade deficit) were pushing the CAD down.
The positive capital and financial account balance made up LTL 257.1 million.Foreign assets of domestic economic entities (financial claims to non-residents), excluding international reserves, went down by LTL 312 million in December, while international financial liabilities increased by LTL 297.7 million.The balance of non-repayable capital transfers amounted to a mere LTL 6.3 million in December.
Foreign assets of domestic commercial banks decreased by LTL 274.8 million in December.The investment of commercial banks in non-resident securities went down by LTL 21.4 million, while other investment abroad (mostly time deposits with foreign banks) contracted by LTL 246.8 million.
Foreign direct investment flows were negative in December (LTL 82.1 million).This was determined by the sale of non-resident holdings in the beer industry to residents.Regardless of the above, according to preliminary estimates, foreign direct investment flows in 2002 amounted to nearly LTL 2.4 million, i.e. up by one third compared to 2001.Foreign direct investment flows in 2002 were more than sufficient to cover the current account deficit.
In December, other non-resident investment in domestic commercial banks (mostly time deposits) made up LTL 317.1 million.Trade credit from non-residents increased over the month under the review by LTL 333.4 million, but the negative loan flows in other sectors amounted to LTL 265.5 million.
The positive international reserve flows in the balance of payments were LTL 358.9 million in December 2002.The main reason behind the increase of international reserves was net purchase of the anchor currency by the Bank of Lithuania from commercial banks in December of LTL 429.4 million.The reserves were pushed down by operations of the Bank of Lithuania with central government institutions, net sales of foreign exchange to other residents and the repayment of part of a loan to the IMF.