Growth in foreign trade imports led to a current account deficit in the first quarter

The Bank of Lithuania published the balance of payments data for Q1 2017, which indicates that the current account balance was in deficit, at EUR 236.4 million, or 2.6 per cent of GDP. The deficit was a result of the negative balances of goods and primary income, which were not offset by the surplus balances of services and secondary income. The negative EUR 200.6 million (2.2% of GDP) flow of net investment on the financial account was driven by a decrease in net other investment, official reserve assets, and direct investment, which was not offset by net positive portfolio investment. In this period, the gross debt fell by 0.9 per cent – to EUR 33.1 billion, or 84.1 per cent of GDP, while the net debt – EUR 10 billion, or 25.5 per cent of GDP.

For more information on the country’s Balance of Payments for Q1 2017, see the Bank of Lithuania’s Statistical Release (92.2 KB download icon). Detailed data for Q1 is available on the Bank of Lithuania website (under External Statistics).

Statistics, External statistics