Monthly developments in October 1999

Continuing the trend of previous months, and reflecting both rising foreign demand and improving euro area price competitiveness, exports of goods continued to recover in October, rising by almost 7% compared with the corresponding period a year ago. Imports of goods increased by 9% in October, as compared with a year earlier, due partly to higher oil prices. In the first ten months of the year, the goods surplus declined to EUR 83.3 billion, compared with ECU 98.4 billion for the same period in 1998. Turning to the financial account, net direct investment outflows amounted to EUR 11.6 billion in October. Between January and October 1999 net direct investment outflows totalled EUR 98.3 billion, substantially more than the ECU 64.1 billion recorded in the same period of last year. The figures for the first ten months of 1999 reflect both higher direct investment abroad by euro area residents and lower foreign direct investment in the euro area. In other accounts of the financial account, net outflows in financial derivatives reached EUR 1.4 billion, and provisional data for other investment (under review) showed net inflows of EUR 57.9 billion in October. Reserve assets decreased by EUR 0.1 billion in October. The table attached (  pdf 6 kB,

After recording significant declines over past months, relative to 1998, the current account surplus of the euro area remained virtually unchanged in October (EUR 3.6 billion) when compared with the same month last year. A slight decline in the goods surplus (by EUR 0.4 billion), along with a higher deficit for the income account, was virtually offset by decreases in the deficits for both services and current transfers. Over the first ten months of 1999, the current account surplus was EUR 38.1 billion, EUR 11.7 billion lower than in the same period last year. Although the shrinking goods surplus is the major reason behind the cumulative decline in the current account surplus, the services balance also declined in the first ten months of 1999, compared with the same period last year, reaching a deficit of EUR 5.3 billion in the period from January to October. In contrast, smaller deficits were recorded for both the income and the transfers accounts for the first ten months of 1999. Portfolio investment reported net outflows in October (EUR 14.4 billion), following net inflows of EUR 20.2 billion in September. This change in the direction of flows was related to a substantial decline in non-residents' purchases of euro area securities, which dropped to EUR 0.8 billion in October, from EUR 37.5 billion in September. In the first ten months of 1999 net portfolio investment outflows were lower than in the same period of the previous year (EUR 51.1 billion, as compared with ECU 76.3 billion). This was mainly due to lower net outflows related to euro area residents' investment abroad. Errors and omissions amounted to -EUR 35.7 billion in October and -EUR 13.3 billion for the first ten months of 1999.

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 ) to this press release contains statistics produced by the Eurosystem in respect of the balance of payments (b.o.p.) of the euro area; the methodology has been set up in close co-operation with the European Commission (Eurostat) which publishes the b.o.p. for the European Union. The ECB compiles these statistics on the basis of the data on extra-euro area transactions reported by euro area countries. The results for October 1999 will also be published in the January issue of the . A detailed methodological note on euro area b.o.p. statistics is available on the ECB's Web site. Reproduction is permitted provided that the source is acknowledged