Analytics, Banks, Economics, Estonia, Financial Services, GDP

The goods and services account was in surplus by 360 mln euros as exports of goods and services were up 5% on the third quarter of 2015, and imports were up 3%. The deficit in goods was 193 million euros, which was one quarter less than in the same quarter of 2015. 

The deficit narrowed mainly because exports of goods increased by 5%, while imports grew at a slower 2%. Exports of all the main groups of goods except food products increased. The surplus in services was 552 million euros, which was the largest ever, and was 9% more than in the third quarter of 2015. Services exports grew by 6% and imports by 5%. There was strong growth in the export of construction services, computer services, maintenance and repair services and other business services.

The net outflow of investment and other income1 was 70 mln euros, or about 15% less than in the third quarter of last year. This was because of a reduction in the net outflow of direct investment and an increase in the net inflow of portfolio and other investment income, while there was some increase in the agricultural subsidies from the European Union funds. At the same time, twice as much was paid into the European Union budget as in the third quarter of 2015. The net inflow of labour income was the same as a year ago.

The surplus on the capital account was one fifth smaller than in the third quarter of 2015 at 81 mln euros. This was because of the reduction in support from the Structural Funds of the European Union, and also because notably more was earned in the third quarter of 2015 from the sale of emissions quotas.

The net total of the current and capital accounts, or net lending (+) or borrowing (-), saw a surplus of 370 mln euros. This means that the Estonian economy was a net lender to other countries. For a more detailed commentary on the statistics on foreign financing, see

1 Net flow is inflow minus outflow. If the inflow exceeds the outflow, there is a net inflow, if the outflow exceeds the inflow there is a net outflow.

Figure 1.

Figure 2.