Frankfurt, July 12 (BridgeNews) - Germany's capital account in May reached a provisional surplus of 16.1 billion euros, compared with a revised deficit of 0.4 billion euros, the Bundesbank said Thursday. Large surpluses in securities and credit flows have more than compensated for a wide deficit in direct investments, the data showed. Developments in capital flows were, however, strongly affected by the one-off factor of a telecom company takeover.
So, direct investments turned into a 37.4 billion euro deficit after 2.6-billion surplus in the previous month, as a large part of the takeover was executed through shares swap, the Bundesbank said.
Securities, on the contrary, showed a 28.4 billion-euro surplus in May after a 27.4-billion deficit in April, as foreign investors acquired 44.5 billion euros worth of German shares. Some two thirds of those were in connection with the above-mentioned takeover, the Bundesbank said. At the same time, German investors were buying less foreign securities, and shares in particular in May. German investors bought just 14.6 billion euros worth of securities in May compared with 21.9 billion in April, acquiring just 1.1 billion euros worth of shares after 9.5 billion in the previous month.
Credit flows continued to show a large surplus of 22.0 billion euros in May, compared with 20.6 billion-euro surplus in April.

Main items of the German capital account
in billion euros, provisional May April

Current acct balance, of which 0.6 2.0
Exports 54.7 52.7
Imports 47.1 47.3

Capital account balance 16.1 -0.4
of which
Direct investment balance -37.4 2.6
of which
German invest. abroad -35.5 -0.6
Foreign invest. in Germany -1.9 3.2
Securities balance 28.4 -27.4
of which
German invest. abroad -14.6 -21.9
Foreign invest. in Germany 43.0 -5.5
Financial derivatives balance 3.2 3.9
Credit flows 22.0 20.6

Changes in currency reserves, transact. prices 0.5 1.2
Non-attributed items, balance -16.5 -2.6