Latvia’s current-account surplus at 6% of GDP in 2nd quarter
03.09.2010, 14:13Latvia’s current-account surplus was 6 percent of gross domestic product in the second quarter, the lowest level in more than a year, as write-downs by foreign- owned banks declined, writes Bloomberg.
The surplus totaled 183.8 million lats ($333 million), the least since the first quarter of 2009, compared with a revised surplus of 246.3 million lats in the first quarter and 478.8 million lati a year earlier, the central bank said. The current-account had a surplus of 9 percent of GDP in the first quarter.
The Baltic country’s current account, which had a deficit of 27.1 percent of GDP in the fourth quarter of 2006, is now in surplus after wage cuts and an economic contraction lowered imports and company profits. The economy is rebounding from last year’s 18 percent slump as manufacturing and exports advance.
“In the second quarter, losses incurred by foreign-direct investment companies grew at a considerably lower rate,” central bank spokesman Martins Gravitis said in the statement.