Greece's Current Account: January-September, 2014

Below are the numbers for Greece's current account for the period January-September 2014, compared with the same period of the previous year. Also compared are the numbers for the 3rd quarter alone.

(in EUR billions)

		January-September			3rd Quarter
		2013	2012		2013	2012
Revenue from abroad
	Exports	17,6	16,8		6,1	5,8
	Services (e. g. tourism)	25,2	22,6		12,9	11,5
	Other income	2,6	2,6		0,9	0,9
	Current transfers	5,1	6,3		0,9	2,5
		----	----		----	----
	Total revenue from abroad	50,5	48,3		20,8	20,7
Expenses abroad
	Imports	31,1	29,7		10,6	10,4
	Services (e. g. tourism)	8,4	8,3		2,8	2,8
	Other expense (e. g. interest)	4,9	5,2		1,6	1,7
	Current transfers	2,3	2,7		0,6	0,8
		----	----		----	----
	Total expenses abroad	46,7	45,9		15,6	15,7
Net foreign deficit (current account)		3,8	2,4		5,2	5,0
Account balances
Trade balance		-13,5	-12,9		-4,5	-4,6
Services balance		16,8	14,3		10,1	8,7
Other balance		-2,3	-2,6		-0,7	-0,8
Current transfer balance		2,8	3,6		0,3	1,7
		----	----		----	----
Net foreign deficit (current account)		3,8	2,4		5,2	5,0

1. The YTD current account improvement was actually greater than the 56% shown above because the previous year included one-time revenues of about 2,5 billion. Either way, a very substantial improvement!
2. Revenues increased both in the YTD period as well as in the 3rd quarter even though both periods included the extraodinary item for 2013.
3. Particularly noticable is the increase in 'services', much of which presumably goes on the account of record inbound tourism.
4. Imports increased at about the same rate as exports. The ratio of imports to exports is now 1,77. That is for every EUR 1.000 worth of exports, EUR 1.777 are imported. A staggering improvement over only several years ago, but still.
5. Overall, the trade balance is deteriorating, possibly reflecting the bottoming-out of the recession.

Press release of the Bank of Greece.