Central Bank of Luxembourg and STATEC publish provisional Q1 2025 balance of payments showing EUR 883 million current account surplus

The Central Bank of Luxembourg and STATEC published first provisional balance of payments results for the first quarter of 2025, showing a current account surplus of EUR 883 million, up EUR 316 million compared with the same period in 2024. The goods balance recorded a deficit of EUR 184 million, an improvement of EUR 82 million year on year, with exports down 2% and imports down 3%. Net exports from international merchanting increased by EUR 1,081 million, while the deficit on general merchandise widened as exports fell 19% (EUR 1,229 million) against a smaller 4% fall in imports (EUR 231 million). The services surplus rose 18% to EUR 1,273 million as exports increased 1.8% and imports fell 1.9%; non-financial services exports fell 1.0% and imports 7.3%, while financial services exports rose 4.7% and imports 5.9%, linked to a 9% increase in average assets managed by investment funds. In the financial account, direct investment flows were negative for both assets (EUR 27 billion) and liabilities (EUR 33.4 billion, about half attributed to capital operations). Portfolio investment showed net inflows into Luxembourg equities of EUR 88.7 billion (EUR 20.6 billion in Q1 2024), net disinvestment in foreign equities of EUR 21.8 billion, net acquisitions of foreign debt securities of EUR 87.1 billion, and net inflows into Luxembourg debt securities of EUR 15.4 billion (EUR 3.6 billion in Q1 2024).