These figures are a result of Portugal’s capital investment position, excluding capital tools, gold bullion and financial derivatives. In the first half of the year, the figure was -€209.6 billion, 1.1 percentage points worse than the end of 2017.

“The variation was due to the combined negative impact of the price variations (-€0.6 billion), transactions (-€1.3 billion) and exchange variations (-€1.2 billion)”, Bdp explains.

Concerning the price variations, the negative impact reflected the valuation of shares of companies in Portugal held by non-residents.

When it comes to exchange variations, there was a reduction in the value of external assets held by residents from the depreciation of the Angolan kwanza, Brazilian real and Venezuelan bolivar.

On the other hand, there was a rise in Portugal’s liabilities against overseas because of the appreciation of the US dollar and the yen.

Net transactions had a negative contribution on Portugal’s net asset against overseas by €1.334M.