Mon, Jun 30 2008, 12:51 GMT
by Orsolya Nyeste
Erste Bank der oesterreichischen Sparkassen AG
The central bank has published C/A balance figures this morning. The C/A deficit amounted to EUR 1.16bn in January-March 2008, a bit higher than our expectation of EUR 1bn. The four-quarter rolling C/A deficit slightly increased to EUR 5.085bn, from EUR 5.036bn, seen in 4Q07, and remained at 5% of GDP. The structure of the C/A balance has remained more or less the same. The surplus on the trade balance was EUR 744mn, thus the four-quarter rolling trade surplus increased to EUR 1.897bn (1.9% of GDP) , from EUR 1.431bn in 4Q07 (1.4% of GDP).
Further improvement seen on the trade balance, however, was again offset by the traditionally high deficit on the incomes balance, amounting to EUR 1.77bn in 1Q08.
Although the fact that the C/A balance did not improve, there was a significant improvement on the financing side of the balance, as non-debt creating financing amounted to EUR 1.699bn, exceeding the C/A deficit in the first quarter. Thus, the country proved to be less reliant on debt creating financing in the first quarter, which was supportive for the forint exchange rate.
Published on Mon, Jun 30 2008, 12:55 GMT
Erste Bank
http://global.treasury.erstebank.com | Rainer.Singer@erstebank.at
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