The euro area’s current-account surplus narrowed to €276 billion in 2025 while gross external debt rose to €17 trillion at the end of the fourth quarter, according to new ECB balance of payments data.
The euro area’s current-account surplus narrowed markedly in 2025, while gross external debt rose to €17.00 trillion at the end of the fourth quarter, according to figures published by the European Central Bank on Thursday, 9 April. The release showed that the bloc remained in surplus overall, but with a significantly weaker external position than a year earlier.
According to the ECB release, the current-account surplus stood at €276 billion, or 1.7 per cent of euro area GDP, compared with €416 billion, or 2.7 per cent of GDP, in 2024. The decline was driven mainly by a deterioration in primary income, which moved from a €54 billion surplus to a €44 billion deficit. The services surplus also narrowed, from €186 billion to €144 billion, while the secondary-income deficit widened from €169 billion to €186 billion. These movements were only partly offset by a larger goods surplus, which rose from €345 billion to €362 billion.
The ECB data show that the improvement in the goods balance was mainly due to a smaller deficit in energy products, which narrowed from €259 billion to €229 billion, and to a larger surplus in chemical products, which increased from €277 billion to €298 billion. At the same time, the surplus in machinery and manufactured goods fell from €276 billion to €252 billion, indicating a weaker contribution from one of the euro area’s core export categories.
In services, the euro area’s position weakened in several important categories. The ECB said that larger deficits in other business services and in charges for the use of intellectual property reduced the overall surplus. Those deficits widened from €36 billion to €78 billion and from €117 billion to €138 billion respectively. This was partly offset by a larger surplus in telecommunications, computer and information services, which rose from €213 billion to €233 billion.
The change in primary income was one of the most significant elements in the annual shift. In the ECB figures, the surplus on direct investment fell sharply from €102 billion to €11 billion, while the deficit on portfolio equity widened from €199 billion to €207 billion. That indicates a weaker return profile on the euro area’s cross-border investment position in 2025 than in the previous year.
The geographical breakdown also pointed to an uneven pattern in the euro area’s external accounts. The ECB recorded the largest bilateral current-account surplus with the United Kingdom, at €229 billion, and the largest bilateral deficit with China, at €155 billion. The euro area also posted a €57 billion deficit with the United States, compared with a €14 billion surplus a year earlier. In goods alone, however, the surplus with the United States increased from €205 billion to €239 billion, while the goods deficit with China widened from €140 billion to €183 billion.
Alongside the annual current-account figures, the ECB said the euro area’s net international investment position improved at the end of 2025. Net external assets rose to €1.76 trillion, or 11.0 per cent of GDP, from €1.59 trillion in the previous quarter. The improvement was driven mainly by higher net assets in direct investment and reserve assets, partly offset by larger net liabilities in portfolio equity. Positive price changes and transactions supported the quarterly increase, while exchange-rate movements and other volume changes weighed in the opposite direction.
At the same time, gross external debt rose to €17.00 trillion, equivalent to 107 per cent of euro area GDP, at the end of the fourth quarter of 2025. That was €20 billion higher than in the previous quarter. The increase was limited in quarterly terms, but it underlined the scale of the bloc’s external liabilities even as the euro area remained in current-account surplus.
The figures also extend a recent softening in the euro area’s external surplus. In an earlier ECB release from January, the central bank had already shown that the 12-month current-account surplus was easing. The new quarterly data confirm that the euro area remained externally in surplus in 2025, but with a narrower margin and a less favourable mix of income and services flows than in 2024.
