Balance of payments registered a surplus of 3,639 million dollars in April-June

Mexico City. The current account of the balance of payments – which reflects the operations carried out by the country abroad, including inflows and outflows, such as remittances, debt payments, among others – observed a surplus of 3,639 million dollars in the second quarter of 2024, according to data released this Friday by the Bank of Mexico (BdeM).

The surplus observed in April-June of this year was higher than the 2.106 billion dollars reported in the same period last year.

This behavior was explained by decreases in the deficits of the services and oil merchandise balances, behavior that was partially offset by a lower balance of non-oil merchandise.

As a proportion of gross domestic product (GDP), the current account surplus observed in the second quarter of 2024 stood at 0.7 percent, a figure that is higher than the surplus reported in April-June 2023, which was 0.5 percent of GDP.

This is the first positive result so far this year, as the balance of payments showed a deficit of 21.374 billion dollars in the first quarter.

The BdeM recorded a surplus in the three previous periods, although at the end of 2023 the deficit was 5,477 million dollars.

The institution commented that during the reference period, global economic activity expanded at a slower pace than in the first quarter of the year. It pointed out that although the performance was heterogeneous, in emerging economies it was lower, in contrast to the dynamism observed in the first quarter.

On the other hand, the BdeM confirmed that at the end of the first half of the year, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Mexico amounted to 31,096 million dollars.

According to the Ministry of Economy (SE), the figure for January-June 2024 is 7 percent higher than that observed in the same period in 2023, which was 20,041 million dollars.

Data from the institution show that in the second quarter, foreign capital from new investments amounted to 264 million dollars, which added to the 645 million dollars reported in the first half of the year, gives a total of 909 million dollars in January-June.

Reinvestments by companies already established in the country totaled 3.219 billion dollars, so when adding the 27.069 billion dollars registered in January-March, the total at the end of the first quarter is 30.288 billion dollars.

Intercompany account investment stood at $1.598 billion, after having contracted by $1.698 billion in the first quarter of the year.

In the second quarter of 2024, an outflow of 8,233 million dollars was observed according to the portfolio investment line.

This is happening after 8.647 billion dollars did not leave in January-March. With the data from April-June 2024, this type of investment, known as hot money, has left in 16 of 21 quarters.

This is the largest capital outflow since the third quarter of 2023, which was $7.725 billion. However, it is lower than that reported in the third and fourth quarters of 2021.