Thursday, November 20, 2014

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)3,82,4
5,25,0


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.

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