Jerusalem24 – WAFA – The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) and the Palestine Monetary Authority (PMA) announced the preliminary results of the Palestinian balance of payments for the fourth quarter of 2021 and said that an incessant deficit in the current account (goods, services, income, current transfers) totaled $390 million.
They said in their joint report that the deficit in the trade balance of goods was the main reason behind the current account deficit.
This deficit in the current account was mainly triggered by the deficit of the trade balance of goods, which reached $1,704 million, as well as the deficit in the services balance, which amounted to $312 million, said the PCBS and the PMA.
The surplus in the income account (compensations of employees and investments income) amounted to $911 million, they said. This surplus was due to compensations of the employees working in Israel, which reached $867 million.
As for the received investments income, it amounted to $79 million and was mainly caused by the income received on the portfolio investments abroad, in addition to the interest received on the Palestinian deposits in banks abroad.
The current transfers achieved a surplus-value amounting to $715 million with an increase of 39% compared to the previous quarter, said the PCBS and PMA. The total transfers from abroad amounted to $806 million, of which 33% were transferred to the government sector, while the percentage of the transfers to other sectors reached 67%. The donors’ current transfers constituted 29% of total transfers from abroad.
The preliminary results showed the surplus value for the capital and financial account amounted to $569 million, caused mainly by the surplus in the financial account, which amounted to $428 million. There was an increase in the reserve assets at PMA amounted to $79 million, compared to an increase of $10 million in the previous quarter.
