MADRID, 23 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The current account surplus reached 3,000 million euros in the third quarter of the year, which represents a decrease of more than 33% compared to the 4,500 million registered a year earlier, mainly due to the worsening of the balance of goods, according to data from the Bank of Spain published this Friday.

All this, despite the fact that the services surplus increased to 26,000 million, compared to 13,900 million registered a year earlier, thanks, above all, to the improvement in the tourist surplus during the summer months, which amounted to 17,900 million, compared to to a balance of 9,300 million for the same period of 2021.

Non-tourism services also contributed to the positive evolution of the balance of services, whose surplus increased by 3,500 million euros, up to 8,100 million.

For its part, the deficit in the balance of goods shot up to 18.3 billion (compared to the 7.0 billion registered in the third quarter of 2021), due to an increase in imports greater than that of exports (36% and 24 %, respectively, in interannual rate).

Primary income registered a balance of 100 million in the third quarter of 2022, compared to 400 million in the same quarter of 2021; while the secondary income deficit increased by 1,600 million (4,500 million in September 2022 compared to 2,900 million a year earlier). Finally, the capital account showed a surplus of 2.8 billion in the third quarter.

Data from the Bank of Spain also show that the gross external debt of the Spanish economy stood at 2.328 trillion euros at the end of the third quarter of the year, which represents 178.9% of GDP, compared to 183.2% of the GDP that marked in the second quarter.

Excluding the Bank of Spain and the debt registered between companies with a direct investment relationship, the greatest change in debt was concentrated in monetary financial institutions (rising to 524,000 million in the third quarter of 2022, from 502,000 million in the second), while public administrations and other resident sectors slightly reduced their debt to stand at 622,000 million and 299,000 million respectively.

In this way, in the third quarter of 2022 Spain's net international investment position reduced its negative balance, registering an amount of 773,300 million (-59.4% of GDP), compared to 816,000 in the previous quarter (-64, 2% of GDP) and 913.3 billion in the third quarter of 2021 (-77.7% of GDP), continuing with the correction path observed since the beginning of 2021.

The financing capacity, measured by the joint balance of the current and capital accounts, was 5,800 million in the third quarter of 2022 (7,500 in the same quarter of the previous year).