31/07/2001 (Agence Europe) - In May the Euro zone recorded a net outflow of capital of EUR 15.5 billion, in terms of direct and portfolio investment, against a outflow of EUR 7.1 billion in May 2000, announced the ECB, on Monday. The negative trend recorded since the beginning of the year, excluding February, thus continued, in particular for direct investment, which posted a negative balance in May of 40.4 billion, against outflows of only 8.5 billion one year earlier, added the ECB. This deterioration was not fully compensated by the inflow of capital in terms of portfolio investments (shares, bonds, and monetary assets), which reached EUR 24.9 billion against a little more than 1 billion one year earlier. The ECB emphasises that the May statistics have been heavily influenced by the finalisation of a major acquisition. It did not want to specify what transaction it was referring to, but according to analysts, this concerned the acquisition, by the German telecommunications group Deutsche Telekom, of the American mobile telephone operators Voicestream and Powertel, finalised at the end of May.