Balance of Payments statistic is compiled according to the methodology provided by the IMF's "Balance of Payments Manual, Fifth edition".

Analogous to previous year the current account was positive equaling 16.5 million USD (48.1 million GEL) in the third quarter of 2019. The trade of goods and income account make negative contribution to current account, while services and current transfers - positive. Current account surplus increased by 34.8 percent from 0.3 percent of GDP to 0.4 percent of GDP.

Balance of goods is the major contributor to the current account. Trade of goods deficit decreased by 4.8 percent annually and amounted to 943.7 million USD (2.8 billion GEL) in the third quarter. Among them exports increased by 10.8 percent and imports increased by 3.5 percent annually. 

The positive balance of services (mostly due to exports of travel services) essentially offset the negative balance of goods. Exports of services decreased by 4.6 percent while imports increased by 2.7 percent. The balance of travel services is the largest positive component of the services account. Export of travel services decreased by 6.9 percent annually and amounted to 1.1 billion USD (3.3 billion GEL).

The current transfers also make positive contribution to the current account. Credit of current transfers increased by 13.5 percent annually totaling 392.3 million USD (1.1 billion GEL). The net private transfers increased by 14.6 percent, while the net government transfers declined, like the previous year was negative (-9.6 million USD, -28.1 million GEL).

Net foreign direct investments amounted to 356.4 million USD (1.0 billion GEL) accounting for 7.7 percent of the third quarter's GDP.

The presented statistical information is publishedon the website of the National Bank of Georgia under the heading "Statistics":https://www.nbg.gov.ge/index.php?m=306&lng=eng#external