Technical sheet: Current account balance
Definition, official source, coverage and calculation method of Current account balance. Country ranking →
Source: Eurostat (bop_gdp6_q), retrieved 2026-10-16 · View on Eurostat
What it measures
| Indicator | Current account balance |
|---|---|
| Unit | % of GDP |
| Frequency | Quarterly |
| Access | Free |
Official Eurostat definition
| Dataset | Main Balance of Payments and International Investment Position items as share of GDP (BPM6) (bop_gdp6_q) |
|---|---|
| Time frequency | Quarterly |
| Unit of measure | Percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) |
| Seasonal adjustment | Unadjusted data (i.e. neither seasonally adjusted nor calendar adjusted data) |
| Balance of payments item | Current account |
| Stock or flow | Balance |
| Geopolitical entity (partner) | Rest of the world |
| Permanent identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.2908/BOP_GDP6_Q |
| Eurostat explanatory notes | Explanatory texts (metadata) |
| Last dataset update at Eurostat | 2026-10-02 |
How to read it
A higher value indicates a more favourable situation.
Coverage
| Countries with data | 37 ·                                      |
|---|---|
| First period available | Q1 1991 |
| Latest period published | Q2 2026 |
| Ranking reference period | Q2 2026 Latest period for which at least 60% of the countries that publish the indicator have released data, so the ranking is not built on a few early countries. |
IPEF calculations
- Year-on-year change: difference from the same period a year earlier (in points for percentages, as a percentage (%) otherwise).
- Rank: order among countries with data for the period; the EU27 and euro-area aggregates are not ranked. Ties share the same rank.
- Trend: latest figure against the average of the previous periods (12 months, 8 quarters, 4 half-years or 5 years).
- IPEF calculations on Eurostat data: changes, ranks and averages are computed among the countries with data for the period. The EU27 and euro-area aggregates are those published by Eurostat and are not ranked.