The growth in goods exports continues to determine the current account surplus

In April of 2010 the current account surplus reached 82.9 million lats and the goods and services exports exceeded imports by 22.8 mil. lats. The trends observed in the previous months continued: the increase in goods exports and raw materials imports is taking place at an ever faster rate and the annual decrease in services exports remained unchanged to a large extent due to the lesser cargo services exports. The current account surplus was smaller in April as a result to the smaller volume of passenger transport by air related to the eruption of a volcano in Iceland. The principal flows of capital in the finance account were determined by banks that increased their investment in foreign short term assets.

The growing producer confidence suggests that increased export volumes, a positive export-import balance, and a current account surplus are to be expected in the next few months as well. Despite recent worries, the cargo by truck businesses are expected to receive additional permits for services to Russia, therefore the main downward risk of Latvian exports is still related to the economic problems in the euro zone.