Banks, Estonia, Financial Services, Foreign trade

The surplus on the goods and services account was less than a year earlier at only 8 million euros. Goods exports fell by 7% over the year and imports by 1%, and so the deficit on the goods account was 57 million euros larger than in March 2017 at 144 million euros, the central bank said.

One factor that affected the turnover of foreign trade was that there were two fewer working days in March than in the previous March. Services exports were up by 8% and imports by 1%.

The surplus on the services account widened by 34 million euros to 152 million euros. The net outflow of investment income and current transfers, or the primary and secondary income accounts, increased by 5 million euros over the year to 41 million euros.

The current and capital accounts were in deficit by a total of 5 million euros. This means that the Estonian economy was a net borrower from the rest of the world for the first time in a long time, so the country as a whole received more funds from abroad than it invested there.

The Bank of Estonia publishes the flash estimate of the balance of payments monthly for the last month but one.