Euro area monthly balance of payments: May 2025

18 July 2025

• Current account recorded €32 billion surplus in May 2025, up from €19 billion in previous month
• Current account surplus amounted to €333 billion (2.1% of euro area GDP) in the 12 months to May 2025, down from €364 billion (2.5%) one year earlier
• In financial account, euro area residents’ net acquisitions of non-euro area portfolio investment securities totalled €758 billion and non-residents’ net acquisitions of euro area portfolio investment securities totalled €744 billion in the 12 months to May 2025

Chart 1

Euro area current account balance

(EUR billions unless otherwise indicated; working day and seasonally adjusted data)

The current account of the euro area recorded a surplus of €32 billion in May 2025, an increase of €13 billion from the previous month (Chart 1 and Table 1). Surpluses were recorded for goods (€33 billion), services (€13 billion) and primary income (€2 billion). These were partly offset by a deficit for secondary income (€16 billion).

Table 1

Current account of the euro area

In the 12 months to May 2025, the current account recorded a surplus of €333 billion (2.1% of euro area GDP), compared with a surplus of €364 billion (2.5% of euro area GDP) one year earlier. This decrease was mainly driven by a shift from a surplus to a deficit for primary income (from a €34 billion surplus to a €5 billion deficit), but also by a larger deficit for secondary income (up from €169 billion to €185 billion) and a reduction in the surplus for services (down from €153 billion to €146 billion). These developments were partly offset by a larger surplus for goods (up from €346 billion to €378 billion).

Chart 2

Selected items of the euro area financial account

(EUR billions; 12-month cumulated data)

In direct investment, euro area residents made net investments of €200 billion in non-euro area assets in the 12 months to May 2025, following net disinvestments of €215 billion one year earlier (Chart 2 and Table 2). Non-residents invested €126 billion in net terms in euro area assets in the 12 months to May 2025, following net disinvestments of €398 billion one year earlier.

In portfolio investment, euro area residents’ net purchases of non-euro area equity increased to €203 billion in the 12 months to May 2025, up from €84 billion one year earlier. Over the same period, net purchases of non-euro area debt securities by euro-area residents increased to €555 billion, up from €490 billion one year earlier. Non-residents’ net purchases of euro area equity increased to €395 billion in the 12 months to May 2025, up from €275 billion one year earlier. Over the same period, non-residents made net purchases of euro area debt securities amounting to €349 billion, declining from €426 billion one year earlier.

Table 2

Financial account of the euro area

In other investment, euro area residents recorded net acquisitions of non-euro area assets amounting to €518 billion in the 12 months to May 2025 (following net acquisitions of €212 billion one year earlier), while their net incurrence of liabilities was €172 billion (following disposals of €104 billion one year earlier).

Chart 3

Monetary presentation of the balance of payments

(EUR billions; 12-month cumulated data)

The monetary presentation of the balance of payments (Chart 3) shows that the net external assets (enhanced) of euro area MFIs increased by €417 billion in the 12 months to May 2025. This increase was mainly driven by the current and capital accounts surplus and, to a lesser extent, euro area non-MFIs’ net inflows in other investment, and portfolio investment equity and debt. These developments were partly offset by euro area non-MFIs’ net outflows in direct investment.

In May 2025 the Eurosystem’s stock of reserve assets increased to €1,507.7 billion up from €1,496.9 billion in the previous month (Table 3). This increase was mostly driven by positive price changes (€6.5 billion) and, to a lesser extent, by net acquisitions of assets (€2.3 billion) and positive exchange rate changes (€2.0 billion).

Table 3

Reserve assets of the euro area

(EUR billions; amounts outstanding at the end of the period, flows during the period; non-working day and non-seasonally adjusted data)

Data revisions

This press release incorporates revisions to the data for April 2025. These revisions did not significantly alter the figures previously published.

Next releases:

• Monthly balance of payments: 19 August 2025 (reference data up to June 2025)
• Quarterly balance of payments: 07 October 2025 (reference data up to the second quarter of 2025)

For media queries, please contact Benoît Deeg, tel.: +49 172 1683704.

Notes

• Current account data are always seasonally and working day-adjusted, unless otherwise indicated, whereas capital and financial account data are neither seasonally nor working day-adjusted.
• Hyperlinks in this press release lead to data that may change with subsequent releases as a result of revisions.