December 27 (SeeNews) - Montenegro's current account deficit widened 60.8% on the year in the first nine months to 511.1 million euro ($746 million), central bank preliminary statistics showed on Thursday.
The January-September current account deficit was equivalent to 32.7% of the estimated gross domestic product (GDP) of the country, the central bank said in a statement.
“Such a high current account deficit in this period was financed from net FDI [foreign direct investment] inflow, which amounted to 21.6% of GDP, and from other investments, which amounted to 9.6% of GDP,” the statement added.
In Q3 alone, the current account surplus rose nearly seven times on the year to 47.5 million euro.
Details from the central bank's quarterly bulletin follow (in millions of euro):
| BALANCE OF PAYMENTS |
JAN-SEPT'07 |
JAN-SEPT'06 |
Q3’07 |
Q3’06 |
| I. CURRENT ACCOUNT BALANCE |
-511.1 |
-317.8 |
47.5 |
6.9 |
| -Balance of goods |
-1,005.6 |
-618.4 |
-338.2 |
-226.7
|
| -- exports |
486.1 |
468.7 |
181.6 |
188.0 |
| -- imports |
1,491.7 |
1,087.2 |
519.8 |
414.7 |
| - Balance of services |
438.7 |
207.1 |
367.9 |
203.6 |
| -- receipts |
594.3 |
373.2 |
425.8 |
265.4 |
| -- expenditures |
155.7 |
166.2 |
57.8 |
61.8 |
| - Current transfers |
40.1 |
72.5 |
14.2 |
18.3 |
| -- Transfers to Montenegro |
70.2 |
83.4 |
22.2 |
23.1 |
| -- Transfers from Montenegro |
30.0 |
10.9 |
8.0 |
4.8 |
| II. CAPITAL AND FINANCIAL ACCOUNT BALANCE |
522.5 |
236.9 |
-45.7 |
-78.7 |
| - Foreign direct investments |
337.6 |
243.3 |
45.7 |
83.3 |
| - Portfolio investments |
9.6 |
6.6 |
6.7 |
2.8 |
| - Other investments |
149.8 |
23.4 |
-103.1 |
-71.8 |
| - Change in net foreign assets |
234.0 |
38.3 |
90.7 |
-34.7 |
| - Change in central bank reserves |
-207.2 |
-61.7 |
-85.8 |
-58.9 |
| III. ERRORS & OMISSIONS |
11.4 |
-80.9 |
1.7 |
-71.7 |
($=0.6841 euro)