Provisional figures for Malta’s external transactions show that during July-September 2018, the current account balance recorded a surplus of €488.3 million as compared to a surplus of €427.8 million in the comparable quarter of 2017. Leading towards this surplus was primarily a positive net balance of the services account of €1,230.0 million marked by improvements in the net balances of the other services, travel and transport accounts. This was partially outweighed by negative net balances in the goods account (€410.7 million), primary income account (€300.5 million) and secondary income account (€30.5 million). Tax data reported in the secondary income account has been revised and brought in line with national accounts quarterly and annual data. Moreover, past BOP estimates have been recomputed using updated financial statements.
During the third quarter of this year, the capital account registered a positive net balance of €18.8 million as compared to a positive balance of €16.1 million during the same quarter in 2017.
The financial account was shaped by net asset increases of €191.3 million, an increase in net balance of assets of €25.4 million over the same quarter last year. The development in the financial account balance was mainly the result of higher other investment and portfolio investment by €1,842.7 million and €640.4 million respectively. These were partially outweighed by lower direct investment assets by €2,360.5 million. As a direct effect of the above shifts in the statement, the reserve assets of the country decreased by €5.3 million compared to an increase of €40.5 million during the comparable quarter in 2017
