Euro area monthly balance of payments: July 2025

18 September 2025

• Current account recorded €28 billion surplus in July 2025, down from €36 billion in previous month
• Current account surplus amounted to €315 billion (2.0% of euro area GDP) in the 12 months to July 2025, down from €394 billion (2.6%) one year earlier
• In financial account, euro area residents’ net acquisitions of non-euro area portfolio investment securities totalled €807 billion and non-residents’ net acquisitions of euro area portfolio investment securities totalled €741 billion in the 12 months to July 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 €28 billion in July 2025, a decrease of €8 billion from the previous month (Chart 1 and Table 1). Surpluses were recorded for goods (€25 billion), services (€12 billion) and primary income (€7 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 July 2025, the current account recorded a surplus of €315 billion (2.0% of euro area GDP), compared with a surplus of €394 billion (2.6% of euro area GDP) one year earlier. This decrease was mainly driven by a switch from a surplus (€41 billion) to a deficit (€2 billion) for primary income, but also by a larger deficit for secondary income (up from €168 billion to €187 billion), and reductions in the surpluses for services (down from €158 billion to €143 billion) and goods (down from €363 billion to €361 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 €284 billion in non-euro area assets in the 12 months to July 2025, following net disinvestments of €211 billion one year earlier (Chart 2 and Table 2). Non-residents made net investments of €220 billion in euro area assets in the 12 months to July 2025, following net disinvestments of €417 billion one year earlier.

In portfolio investment, euro area residents’ net purchases of non-euro area equity increased to €221 billion in the 12 months to July 2025, up from €111 billion one year earlier. Over the same period, net purchases of non-euro area debt securities by euro area residents increased to €586 billion, up from €421 billion one year earlier. Non-residents’ net purchases of euro area equity increased to €368 billion in the 12 months to July 2025, up from €336 billion one year earlier. Over the same period, non-residents made net purchases of euro area debt securities amounting to €373 billion, following net purchases of €413 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 €511 billion in the 12 months to July 2025 (following net acquisitions of €183 billion one year earlier), while their net incurrence of liabilities was €270 billion (following net disposals of €221 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 €281 billion in the 12 months to July 2025. This increase was mainly driven by the current and capital accounts surplus and, to a lesser extent, by euro area non-MFIs’ net inflows in portfolio investment equity and debt. These developments were partly offset mostly by euro area non-MFIs’ net outflows in direct investment and other flows.

In July 2025 the Eurosystem’s stock of reserve assets increased to €1,499.0 billion up from €1,462.1 billion in the previous month (Table 3). This increase was mostly driven by positive price changes (€29.7 billion), due to an increase in the price of gold, and, to a lesser extent, by positive exchange rate changes (€7.1 billion) and net acquisitions of assets (€0.1 billion).

Table 3

Reserve assets of the euro area

Data revisions

This press release does not incorporate revisions to previous periods.

Next releases:

• Quarterly balance of payments: 7 October 2025 (reference data up to the second quarter of 2025)
• Monthly balance of payments: 20 October 2025 (reference data up to August 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.