Portugal with €6.2Bn BoP surplus

Portugal’s economy clocked up a €6.2Bn overseas trade balance of payments surplus to September, 2023, compared to a deficit of €1.6Bn for the same period in 2022 and represented 3.2% of Portugal’s GDP for first seven months of the year.

According to the Bank of Portugal the balance of goods and services increased €6.8Bn like-for-like, while its international investment position went from -83.6% of GDP at the end of 2022 to -74.3% at the end of the third quarter of 2023.
Looking at September alone, capital current account balance stood at €1.2Bn, up €1Bn on the same month in 2022.
In the case of the goods and services balance, the BdP says that it turned a surplus of €756 million,
€970 million more like-for-like on 2022 to €2.136Bn, with a reduction in the trade deficit of
€320 million to €2.136Bn in the trade balance deficit, which the bank says is down to “a decrease in imports by €961 million (-10.6%) and in exports by €641 million (-9.7%).
In the case of the balance of services, the surplus went from €2.241Bn to €2.892Bn, with service imports falling 6.2% and exports up 11.7%.
The increase in exports reflects tourism revenues (+399 million) that totalled €2.789Bn – the highest ever for a month of September.