Today, the Ministry of Economy and Labour, the Hon. Jason Hayward, JP, MP, released the 2022 Q3 Balance of Payments & International Investment Position publication from the Department of Statistics.
The Minister explained, “Bermuda’s trade with non-residents resulted in a $206 million surplus for the third quarter of 2022, up $41 million from a year ago.
“Transactions related to trade in goods led to a wider deficit on the goods account, increasing by $19 million to $314 million. Higher imports were associated mainly with basic materials and semi-manufactured goods.
Minister Hayward added, “Services transactions realised a surplus of $82 million, widening $14 million year-over-year. Greater growth was recorded on the travel accounts related to the increase in payments made by residents for air passenger services and travel services abroad. The surplus on Bermuda’s primary income account rose by $38 million to $502 million, due mainly to an increase in net investment income.
The Minister continued, “Bermuda’s trade in financial assets and liabilities with the rest of the world resulted in a net international investment position of $3.3 billion at the end of the third quarter of 2022. This balance decreased by $1.6 billion over the second quarter of 2022 due to decreased holdings of portfolio and other investments. Two of the four institutional sectors recorded positive balances on their net international investment positions at the end of the third quarter. Specifically, financial corporations recorded a balance of $6.1 billion, and non-profit institutions recorded a balance of $32 million. In contrast, non-financial corporations recorded a deficit balance of $2.2 billion while the government sector recorded a deficit balance of $521 million due to a decline in portfolio investment assets and an increase in portfolio investment liabilities.”
The publication now includes a new Integrated International Investment Position Table (Table 4). Data provided in the table demonstrates the flow of transactions and other changes between the reporting quarters.
Users are advised of the publication’s Technical Note which indicates that a computational error was detected and, therefore, data has been revised. The necessary steps have been taken to prevent this from recurring.
The 2022 Q3 Balance of Payments & International Investment Position publication is available online at https://www.gov.bm/balance-payments. The public is advised to read the definitions and notes on the last two pages of the publication before reviewing the data.