Analytics, EU – Baltic States, Lithuania

EU27 current account deficit is 4.1 bn euro and 31.1 bn euro surplus for trade in services. According to the latest available data, the EU271 external current account recorded a deficit of 4.1 billion euro in the first quarter of 2012, compared with a deficit of 31.3 bn in the first quarter of 2011.

In the first quarter of 2012, compared with the first quarter of 2011, there was a fall in the deficit of the goods account (-31.6 bn euro compared with -47.3 bn). The surplus of the services account rose (+31.1 bn compared with +20.4 bn), as did the surplus of the income account (+14.4 bn compared with +13.4 bn). The deficit of the current transfers account remained nearly stable (-17.9 bn compared with -17.8 bn).

The surplus recorded in the services account (+31.1 bn euro) is mainly the result of surpluses in "other business services", which includes miscellaneous business, professional and technical services (+12.9 bn), financial services (+7.2 bn), computer & information services (+5.8 bn), transportation (+4.8 bn), insurance services (+2.8 bn) and construction services (+2.4 bn), only partially offset by deficits in royalties & license fees (-1.4 bn) and travel (-0.3 bn). In the first quarter of 2012, the EU27 external current account recorded a surplus with the USA (+20.6 bn euro), Switzerland (+17.3 bn), Brazil (+7.6 bn), Hong Kong (+6.3 bn), Canada (+4.9 bn) and India (+1.3 bn), and a deficit with China (-25.8 bn), Russia (-20.8 bn) and Japan (-5.2 bn).

As concerns the total (intra-EU plus extra-EU) current account balances of the EU27 Member States, nine recorded surpluses and eighteen deficits in the first quarter of 2012. The highest surpluses were observed in Germany (+41.1 bn euro), the Netherlands (+17.5 bn), Sweden (+7.8 bn) and Austria (+3.2 bn), and the largest deficits in the United Kingdom (-14.6 bn), Spain (-14.4 bn), Italy (-13.1 bn) and France (-9.6 bn), reported ELTA/LETA.