Belgium recorded a current account gap of EUR 3,783 million in the fourth quarter of 2018, swinging from a EUR 149 million surplus in the corresponding month of the previous year. The goods account shortfall widened to EUR 589 million from EUR 23 million a year earlier and the services account recorded a EUR 2,005 million deficit swinging from a EUR 1,700 million surplus while the secondary income gap increased to EUR 1,870 million from EUR 1,698 million. On the other hand, the primary income surplus rose to EUR 682 million from EUR 171 million. Considering full 2018, Belgium posted a current account deficit of EUR 5,934 million, compared with a EUR 3,192 million surplus in 2017. Current Account in Belgium averaged 1151.93 EUR Million from 1995 until 2018, reaching an all time high of 7732 EUR Million in the second quarter of 2010 and a record low of -6687 EUR Million in the third quarter of 2008.
Current Account in Belgium is expected to be 115.00 EUR Million by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate Current Account in Belgium to stand at -320.00 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the Belgium Current Account is projected to trend around -280.00 EUR Million in 2020, according to our econometric models.