According to provisional data from the Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, the EU27 external current account recorded a deficit of 26.5 billion euro in the first quarter of 2008, compared with a deficit of 30.4 bn in the first quarter of 2007 and a deficit of 7.3 bn in the fourth quarter of 2007.

In the first quarter of 2008, compared with the first quarter of 2007, the deficit of the goods account rose (-53.7 bn euro compared with -44.3 bn), while the surplus of the services account decreased slightly (+17.4 bn compared with +18.9 bn). The surplus of the income account more than doubled (+24.0 bn compared with +9.5 bn). The deficit of the current transfers account remained stable (-14.2 bn compared with -14.5 bn).

The surplus recorded in the services account (+17.4 bn euro) is mainly the result of surpluses in financial services (+8.6 bn), "other business services", which includes miscellaneous business, professional and technical services (+8.0 bn), computer & information services (+3.9 bn) and transportation (+3.8 bn), partially offset by deficits in travel (-6.8 bn) and royalties & license fees (-3.3 bn).

In the first quarter of 2008, the EU27 external current account recorded a surplus with the USA (+23.2 bn euro), Switzerland (+11.4 bn), Canada (+4.5 bn) and Hong Kong (+2.1 bn), and a deficit with China (-33.7 bn), Russia (-14.4 bn) and Japan (-5.2 bn).