Provisional estimates show that during the second quarter, Malta’s current account recorded a net surplus of €179.5 million, the National Statistics Office said today.

This is the first Balance of Payments statement produced according to the guidelines provided in the ‘Sixth Edition of the IMF’s Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual.

For the first time, the statement is including data for special purpose entities (SPEs). Therefore these updates do not allow for comparison with previous periods. As this release presents the first results of the transition to the BPM6, the current and capital accounts covering the period from 2012 to the second quarter this year are being shown. Application of the new methodology to coverage of the financial account is in hand, the NSO said.

The main drive behind the increase of €123.0 million in the current account surplus over the corresponding quarter last year is the primary income account. This increased on account of lower re-invested earnings by the banking sector. The other accounts remained in line with last year.

When comparing the first half of the year with the corresponding period a year ago, the primary income account was also the main cause for the improvement in the current account surplus.

The services account also showed improvement, mainly from foreign tourist expenditure in Malta.

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