Macro roundup: Greece's external position

Oil balance worsens in March; FDI inflow slows after record year; building activity drops

Greece’s current account position continued to improve in March, though by less than the amount of the first two months of the year.

The current account deficit shrank to 3.85 billion euros in the first quarter, compared with 6.98 billion euros in the first three months of 2022. Funds from the European Union’s Recovery and Resilience Facility, recorded under the secondary income account, significantly boosted the current account in both January and March.

Without the primary and secondary income accounts, the balance of goods and services improved by 66.5 million euros in March, compared with 1.76 billion euros for the first quarter as a whole. Moreover, the oil balance worsened in March from a year earlier, following improvements in each of the previous two months.