Provisional figures for Malta's external transactions show that during April-June 2016 the current account balance recorded a deficit of €5.3 million as compared to a surplus of €13.0 million registered in the comparable quarter last year, the National Statistics Office said today.

Leading towards this deficit were primarily net negative balances in the goods and the primary income accounts of €609.8 million and €68.3 million respectively. Conversely, surpluses in the services and secondary income accounts of €627.4 million and €45.4 million respectively partially outweighed these decreases.

The services account was marked by improvements in the net balances of the travel, other services and transport accounts.

During the second quarter of 2016, the capital account registered a positive net balance of €26.6 million from a positive balance of €31.9 million last year.

The financial account was shaped by net asset increases of €202.8 million as opposed to net increases of €105.0 million during the same quarter of 2015. The improvement in the financial account balance was mainly the result of higher portfolio investment assets partially outweighed by a decline in net direct investment assets.

Moreover, net financial derivatives assets registered an increase of €175.3 million. As a direct effect of the above shifts in the statement, the reserve assets of the country increased by €89.7 million compared to a decline of €0.9 million during the same quarter last year.

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