According to the latest revisions, the EU27 external current account recorded a deficit of 27.7 billion euro in the third quarter of 2009, compared with a deficit of 73.5 bn in the third quarter of 2008 and a deficit of 49.0 bn in the second quarter of 2009.

In the third quarter of 2009, compared with the third quarter of 2008, the deficit of the goods account decreased (-19.1 bn euro compared with -64.9 bn), as did the deficit of the income account (-8.6 bn compared with -14.2 bn). The surplus of the services account fell (+16.7 bn compared with +19.3 bn) and the deficit of the current transfers account increased (-16.7 bn compared with -13.7 bn).

The surplus recorded in the services account (+16.7 bn euro) is mainly the result of surpluses in "other business services", which includes miscellaneous business, professional and technical services (+8.9 bn), financial services (+5.7 bn), transportation (+5.4 bn) and computer & information services (+4.1 bn), partially offset by deficits in travel (-5.6 bn) and royalties & licence fees (-3.9 bn).

In the third quarter of 2009, the EU27 external current account recorded a surplus with the USA (+12.5 bn euro), Switzerland (+6.0 bn), Canada (+2.4 bn), Hong Kong (+2.1 bn), Brazil (+1.6 bn) and India (+1.1 bn), and a deficit with China (-29.3 bn), Russia (-8.4 bn) and Japan (-8.0 bn).

Financial Account

In the third quarter of 2009, the EU27 made direct investments abroad for 56.2 bn, compared with 75.7 bn in the same quarter of 2008, while foreign direct investors made investments in the EU27 for 26.9 bn, compared with investments for 64.5 bn in the same quarter of 2008. Portfolio investments recorded a net inflow of 100.8 bn, compared with 153.2 bn in the third quarter of 2008.

These provisional data, issued by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, are based on the information available at the time of publication and subject to revision.