The Central Bank of Luxembourg (BCL) and STATEC released provisional balance of payments results for the first half of 2025, showing a current account surplus of EUR 2,181 million, down EUR 196 million from the same period in 2024. The improvement in the goods balance was offset by a weaker services surplus, while the financial account showed negative direct investment flows and strong portfolio inflows. The goods surplus rose to EUR 1,251 million (up EUR 429 million), reflecting a 2% increase in exports and a 2% fall in imports, with net exports from international merchanting up EUR 599 million even as the deficit on general merchandise widened. The services balance fell 9.5% to EUR 1,490 million as services exports declined 1.9% and imports rose 0.2%, with a larger contraction in non-financial services exports (-6.9%) than imports (-2.5%) and growth in financial services exports (2.3%) and imports (3.3%) linked to a 7% increase in average investment fund assets managed. In the financial account, direct investment was negative for both assets (-EUR 68.2 billion) and liabilities (-EUR 73.8 billion, mainly intra-group loans), while portfolio flows included net inflows into Luxembourg equities of EUR 141.2 billion and net acquisitions of foreign debt securities of EUR 136.5 billion.