Madrid: Europe opened 2026 with money flowing firmly in its favour, as fresh Eurostat figures put the bloc’s current account back into a comfortable surplus after a wobbly close to last year.

The seasonally adjusted current account of the balance of payments recorded a surplus of €113.4 billion in the first quarter, equal to 2.4% of gross domestic product, the statistics office reported in its early July release.

A current account tracks the money a bloc earns from the rest of the world against what it pays out. It bundles together trade in goods and services, the income that investors and workers send across borders, and one-way transfers such as aid and pension payments. When the total runs positive, Europe is lending to the world rather than borrowing from it.

Services carried much of the quarter. European firms sold consultancy, transport, digital and financial services well beyond what they bought, and that surplus more than offset a thinner margin on physical goods. Primary income, largely the returns European investors collect on assets held abroad, also stayed in the black.

The headline masks a bumpier month-by-month story. Eurostat’s separate goods figures showed the euro area slipping to a small trade deficit in May, as import bills for energy and manufactured inputs climbed faster than export receipts. The quarterly current account still held up because services and investment income filled the gap.

Economists read a healthy surplus two ways. It signals that European producers remain competitive and that the bloc is accumulating claims on foreign economies. It can also flag weak domestic demand, since a surplus partly reflects households and firms importing less than a booming economy would.

The number matters for the euro. A steady external surplus supports the currency and gives the European Central Bank one less worry as it weighs the path of interest rates. It also strengthens the Commission’s argument, in trade talks from Washington to Beijing, that Europe pulls its weight in the global economy rather than living on borrowed money.

The composition carries a warning too. Leaning so heavily on services and investment income, while the goods balance thins, ties Europe’s external strength to a narrow band of high-value sectors. A squeeze on the profits European firms earn abroad could unwind the surplus faster than a slow factory recovery could replace it.

Brussels will watch whether the goods balance keeps eroding through the summer. Tariff frictions, a firmer euro and volatile energy prices all press on exporters. For now, though, the data hand policymakers a rare piece of good news: for all the talk of European decline, the continent still sells the world more than it buys.