NBU revises balance of payments data for 2024 and Q1, 2025
The National Bank has revised balance of payments data for 2024 and Q1, 2025 due to the receipt of revised data.
This is stated in the NBU message, the Ukrainian News agency reports.
Data on import/export of goods for 2024 – Q1 2025 were revised due to the inclusion of revised information on the volume of postal items.
Since 2016, the National Bank has received relevant information from the State Customs Service, which was formed on the basis of paper documents and contained data only on parcels that were subject to taxation.
The implementation of an electronic system for customs clearance of postal and express items has made it possible to significantly increase the coverage of international postal traffic.
As a result, the volume of imports of goods arriving in the form of postal items reached USD 1.6 billion in the first quarter of 2025, and USD 3.5 billion in 2024, compared to USD 53 million and USD 228 million in previous estimates, respectively.
Data for previous years were not revised and remained at approximately USD 20-30 million per quarter.
The volume of postal exports was also significantly revised: from several hundred thousand dollars per year to USD 173 million for the first quarter of 2025.
At the same time, the import volumes under the article "Travel" were revised: based on expert assessments, the expenses abroad previously included in this article were reduced by the share of expenses on Ukrainian cards of citizens staying abroad for more than one year - by USD 1.3 billion in 2024 and by USD 264 million in the first quarter of 2025.
Other changes were also made to the balance of payments related to obtaining new reporting data, in particular:
- revised volumes of technical assistance for 2024: USD 2.8 billion compared to USD 1.2 billion;
- included volumes of reinvested income from other sectors: USD 222 million in the fourth quarter of 2024 and USD 63 million in the first quarter of 2025), etc.
As a result of the data revision, the negative current account balance for 2024 was increased from USD 13.7 to USD 15.9 billion, and in the first quarter of 2025 - from USD 5.8 to USD 6.9 billion.
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, the current account deficit in 2024 amounted to USD 13.4 billion (7.1% of GDP) compared to USD 9.6 billion (5.4% of GDP) in 2023.
The current account deficit in 2023 amounted to USD 9.8 billion (5.5% of GDP) compared to a surplus of USD 8.0 billion (5.0% of GDP) in 2022.
For 2023, the consolidated balance of payments was formed with a surplus of USD 9.5 billion (in 2022, the deficit was USD 2.9 billion).
The current account surplus in 2022 was USD 8.6 billion (5.8% of GDP) compared to a deficit of USD 3.9 billion (1.9% of GDP) in 2021.
Overall, the consolidated balance of payments in 2022 was formed with a deficit of USD 2.9 billion (in 2021, the surplus was USD 487 million).