Recent Updates
- Czech Republic: Construction (Jun)
- Albania: Business and Consumers Survey, CPI (Jul)
- Uganda: PPI (Jun)
- Ireland: Live Register [Registered Unemployment] (Jul)
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- more updates...
Economy in Brief
U.S. Consumer Credit Growth Surges in June
Consumer credit outstanding jumped $40.1 billion (7.7% y/y) in June...
Japan's LEI Waffles and Slows
Japan's leading economic index in June slipped to 100.6...
U.S. Foreign Trade Deficit Narrows in June
The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services (BOP basis) fell to $79.61 billion in June...
U.S. Unemployment Claims Remain on an Uptrend
Initial claims for unemployment insurance filed in the week ended July 30 rose 6,000 to 260,000...
RICS Survey Shows Weakening U.K. Housing Market
With the Bank of England hiking its key rate by 50 basis points and planning to squeeze its balance sheet...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
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by Louise Curley August 20 2007
Among the Haver updates released today were balance of payments data for Greece and Taiwan. The two countries have very different balances of payments. Greece traditionally runs a deficit on current account while Taiwan runs a surplus. Typically, a deficit (surplus) is offset largely by inflows (outflows) in its capital and financial accounts and changes in foreign exchange reserves. Because of difficulties in the measurement of all the various flows in the balance of payments, an item "errors and omissions" is introduced to balance the account. The first two charts show how Greece's current account deficit, and Taiwan's surplus are offset by changes in capital flows, foreign exchange reserves and "errors and omissions".
Greece's deficit on current account is the result of deficits on trade in goods and its income account that outweigh small surpluses on trade in services and transfer. Taiwan, on the other hand has a large surplus on goods and on its income account that more than offsets small deficits on trade in services and in transfers. The components of the current account for Greece and Taiwan are shown in the third and fourth charts.
When foreign exchange reserves are used to offset a deficit in the current account, they appear with a plus sign in the balance of payments account, however, the store of reserves has been reduced. Thus in the balance of payments a plus sign in the reserves means a decline in reserves and a minus sign indicates an increase. Over the years Taiwan has often opted to increase reserves, rather than invest the surplus on current account in foreign assets. At the end of June, Taiwanese reserves amounted to $266 billion, compared with $355 million for Greece.
Q2 07 | Q1 07 | Q2 06 | Q/Q Dif | Y/Y Dif | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
GREECE (Millions Euros) | ||||||||
Current Account | -4688 | -9022 | -6256 | 1334 | -1432 | -23660 | -14348 | -10453 |
Capital & Financial Account* (Includes change in Reserves |
8148 | 8800 | 6491 | 652 | 1657 | 23404 | 14655 | 10220 |
Errors and Omission | -461 | 222 | -235 | -682 | -226 | 255 | -308 | 233 |
Actual Foreign Exchange Reserves (Mil US$) |
355 | 466 | 514 | -101 | -159 | 389 | 326 | 679 |
TAIWAN (Millions US$) | ||||||||
Current Account | 4976 | 8780 | 4511 | -3804 | 465 | 24658 | 19019 | 18478 |
Capital & Financial Account | -7187 | -10998 | -5841 | 3811 | -1346 | -19749 | 2185 | 7089 |
Change in Foreign Exchange Reserves | 1893 | -369 | -482 | 2262 | 2375 | -6086 | -20056 | -26595 |
Errors and Omission | 318 | 2587 | 1812 | -2269 | -1494 | 1177 | 1852 | 1028 |
Actual Foreign Exchange Reserves (Mil US$) |
266055 | 267490 | 260350 | -1436 | 5705 | 266148 | 253290 | 241738 |