Czech Republic's balance of payments reached record surplus in 2020

The Czech Republic’s balance of payments account - the sum of all economic transactions between the Czech economy and foreign countries - ended in a record surplus of CZK 203.5 billion last year. April and December were the only two months when the account balance was negative, according to data from the Czech National Bank.

ING Bank economist Jakub Seidler told the Czech News Agency that the large surplus is caused by deferred dividend payments. His counterpart at KB, Michal Brožka, said that the current account balance was positively affected in the second half of 2020 by the rise of exports combined with a low level of imports and deferred dividend payments. However, he does not expect the current account balance to improve further this year as the economy recovers, which will result in a rise of investment and associated imports.