Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union

Eurostat, C1, National accounts methodology. Indicators

Office address:
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Functional mail box: ESTAT-MIP@ec.europa.eu

The Balance of Payments (BoP) systematically summarizes all economic transactions between the residents and the non-residents of a country or of an economic area during a given period. The BoP provides harmonised information on international transactions which are part of the current, capital and financial accounts.

The Current account provides information about the transactions of a country with the rest of the world. It covers all transactions (other than those in financial items) in goods, services, primary income and secondary income, which occur between resident and non-resident units.

The MIP scoreboard indicator is the 3-year average of the Current account balance as % of GDP. In addition, annual and quarterly data on the BoP sub-balances and its components are published under the MIP domain. 

The methodological framework followed in the compilation of the Balance of Payments is defined in the IMF’s Balance of Payments and International Investment Positions Manual, Sixth Edition (BPM6) and the European system of national and regional accounts for the denominator (ESA 2010), as defined in Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2013.

Balance of Payments Manual fifth edition (BPM5) was the reference for the data published by Eurostat until 2014.

National data are compiled and disseminated for transactions and positions of total economy vis-a-vis the rest of the world. For European aggregates, the partner is different: for the euro area, the partner is “Extra euro area”, while for the EU the partner is “Extra EU”. This implies the elimination of all flows between members of the euro area/EU, and affects all indicators listed in the tables (see §3.4, 'Statistical concepts and definitions').

The MIP scoreboard indicator is the three-year backward moving average of the current account balance expressed in percent of GDP and calculated as: [[(CA/GDP)_t + (CA/GDP)_t-1 + (CA/GDP)_t-2] / 3]*100. The indicative thresholds for the indicator are of +6% and -4%. The indicator is based on the Balance of Payments (BoP) data reported to Eurostat by EU Member States.

The BoP is a statistical statement that systematically summarises, over a given period of time, all the transactions of an economy with the rest of the world. The balance of payments records all economic transactions undertaken between the residents and non-residents of a country during a given period. A transaction is defined as an economic flow that reflects the creation, transformation, exchange, transfer, or extinction of economic value and involves changes in ownership of goods and/or financial assets, the provision of services, or the provision of labour and capital.
The concept of resident in the BPM6 is identical to the one used in the 2008 System of National Accounts (SNA) and 2010 European System of National and Regional Accounts (ESA 2010). The concept is not based on nationality or legal criteria. It is based on the notion of a centre of economic interest. An institutional unit is a resident unit when it has a centre of economic interest in the economic territory of a country for a period of at least one year.  The balance of payments provides information on the total value of credits (or exports), debits (or imports), net acquisition of financial asset and net incurrence of liabilities for each BOP item and on the balance (credits minus debits) or net (net acquisition of financial asset minus net incurrence of liabilities) of the transactions with each partner. The current account together with the capital and the financial accounts form the balance of payments.

For the purpose of introducing EU and euro area aggregates, different values of the partner dimension have to be considered. The current account balance for a country refers to the transactions of a country with the "Rest of the world" as a partner (including other euro area or EU Member States). In the case of European aggregates, the partner is different: for the euro area, the partner is “Extra euro area”, while for the EU the partner is “Extra EU”. This implies the elimination of all flows between members of the euro area/EU, and affects all indicators listed in the tables.

The balance of payments is broken down into three broad sub-balances: the 'Current account' (I.), the 'Capital account' (II.) and the 'Financial account' (III.).

I. Current account shows the flows of goods, services, primary income and secondary income between resident and non-resident units:

1. Goods

BOP item Goods covers general merchandise, non-monetary gold and, since the implementation of the BPM6, net export of goods under merchanting. The most important component, General merchandise, includes all movable goods whose ownership is transferred from a resident to a non-resident and vice versa.

2. Services

'Services' are the second major category of the current account. In the production of data on International Trade in Services the references are the IMF’s BPM6 and the United Nations’ Manual on Statistics of International Trade in Services 2010. 

Categories of services: Transport, Travel, Construction services, Insurance services, Financial services (which include explicitly charged and other financial services, and financial intermediation services indirectly measures), Charges for the use of intellectual property, Telecommunications, computer and information services, Other business services, which include research and development services, professional and management consulting services, and techincal, trade-related and other business services, Personal, cultural and recreational services, Government goods and services.

When combined, goods and services together make up a country's balance of trade. The balance of trade is typically the biggest bulk of a country's balance of payments as it makes up total imports and exports. If a country has a balance of trade deficit, it imports more than it exports, and if it has a balance of trade surplus, it exports more than it imports.

3. Primary income
Primary income covers three types of transactions between residents and non-residents: Compensation of employees, Investment income and Other primary income.

4. Secondary income
It is a counterpart entry, required by the double-entry system used in BOP compilation, that offsets the provision of a non-financial, or financial, item by a resident to a nonresident (or vice versa) without a counterpart return of an item of economic value. Secondary income consists of all transfers, which are not capital (see below). Current transfers are broken down, according to the sector of the compiling economy, into two subcomponents: general government and other sectors.

II. Capital account covers all transactions that involve (a) the receipt or payment of capital transfers (debt forgiveness, nonlife insurance claims, investment grants, one-off guarantees and other debt assumption, capital taxes and other capital transfers) and (b) the acquisition/disposal of non-produced, non-financial assets, which includes transactions associated with tangible assets (e.g., land and subsoil assets) and transactions associated with intangible assets (e.g., patents, copyrights, trademarks, franchises, etc.).

III. Financial account covers all transactions associated with changes of ownership in the foreign financial assets and liabilities of an economy. The financial account is broken down into five basic functional categories: Direct investment (divided by instrument into equity and investment fund shares, reinvestment of earnings and debt instruments), Portfolio investment (divided by instrument into equity and investment fund shares, reinvestment of earnings for investment fund shares and debt securities), Financial derivatives and employee stock options, Other investment (divided by instrument into other equity, currency and deposits, loans, insurance, pension schems and other standardised guarantee schemes, trade credits and advances, other accounts receivable/payable and special drawing rights) and Official reserve assets (divided by instrument into monetary gold, special drawing rights, reserve position in the International Monetary Fund and other reserve assets).

Any individual, corporation or other institution that provides information on the transactions or positions between the residents and non-residents of a country during a given period.

BoP statistical population includes all the economic transactions between residents and non-residents. The coverage of the statistical population assured by the reported transactions can be very different for different current account items.

The MIP scoreboard presents data for each EU Member State, as well as euro area (EA) and the European Union as a whole (see §3.4 'Statistical concepts and definitions' for details on the change of partner from "Rest of the world" to "Extra-EU" or "Extra-EA"). EU and EA aggregates were added in 2023. 

The data published under the MIP domain are quarterly and annual time series. The quarterly data are annualized as sum of four quarters of each year. The lengths of the series vary according to country, for details on time coverage see the corresponding table:

tipsbp10 (Current account balance - 3 year average); tipsbp11 (Current account, main components, net balance - annual data, % of GDP); tipsbp12 (Current account, main component, credit - annual data, % of GDP); tipsbp13 (Current account, main components, debit - annual data, % of GDP); tipsbp14 (Current account, main components, net balance - annual data, million units of national currency); tipsbp15 (Current account, main components, credit - annual data, million units of national currency); tipsbp16 (Current account, main components, debit - annual data, million units of national currency); tipsbp17 (Capital account - annual data); tipsbp18 (Financial account - annual data); tipsbp19 (Financial account by components, net balance - annual data, million units of national currency);

tipsbp20 (Current account balance - annual data); tipsbp21 (Direct investment in the reporting economy, main components - annual data, million units of national currency); tipsbp22 (Direct investment abroad, main components - annual data, million units of national currency); tipsbp90 (Direct investment in the reporting economy (flows) - annual data, % of GDP); tipsbp100 (Direct investment in the reporting economy (stocks) - annual data, % of GDP); tipsbp70 (Net Lending/Borrowing, current and capital account - annual data);

tipsbp40 (Current account balance - quarterly data); tipsbp41 (Current account, main components, net balance - quarterly data, % of GDP); tipsbp42 (Current account, main components, credit - quarterly data, % of GDP); tipsbp43 (Current account, main components, debit - quarterly data, % of GDP); tipsbp44 (Current account, main components, net balance - quarterly data, million units of national currency); tipsbp45 (Current account, main components, credit - quarterly data, million units of national currency); tipsbp46 (Current account, main components, debit - quarterly data, million units of national currency); tipsbp47 (Capital account - quarterly data); tipsbp48 (Financial account - quarterly data); tipsbp49 (Financial account, main components - quarterly data, million units of national currency); tipsbp50 (Net Lending/Borrowing (current and capital account) - quarterly data); tipsbp51 ()Direct investment in the reporting economy - quarterly data, % of GDP; tipsbp52 Direct investment in the reporting economy, main components - quarterly data, million units of national currency(); tipsbp53 (Direct investment abroad - quarterly data, % of GD); tipsbp54 (Direct investment abroad, main components - quarterly data, million units of national currency).

Not applicable

Data are in % of GDP, in million units of national currency and 3-year average (for the MIP headline indicator).

The reference period is the calendar year.

The Regulation no 184/2005 of The European Parliament and of the Council of 12 January 2005 on Community statistics concerning balance of payments, international trade in services and foreign direct investment (OJ L35/23 of 8/02/2005), became the applicable for EU data production as from reference year 2006 onwards. In addition, Commission Regulation (EC) No 601/2006, Commission Regulation (EC) No 602/2006, Commission Regulation (EC) No 707/2009, Commission Regulation (EU) No 555/2012, Regulation (EU) 2016/1013 and Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/505 of 19 December 2018 have been published (OJ L106/7, L106/10 of 18/04/2006, L204/3 of 6/08/2009, L166/22 of 27/06/2012, L171/144 of 29/6/2016, L 85, 27/3/2019), respectively implementing and amending Regulation (EC)No 184/2005. Quality reports for the BoP domain are prepared in accordance with Commission Regulation (EC) No 1227/2010 of 20 December 2010 implementing Regulation (EC) No 184/2005 (OJ No L 283/3).
The reference for National Accounts data (in the denominator of the MIP indicator) is the Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 on the European system of national and regional accounts in the European Union (ESA 2010).
In the compilation of BoP, responsibility is shared between Eurostat and the ECB. A Memorandum of Understanding (with a BoP Annex) has been signed between the two parties.

The indicator Current account balance is part of the MIP Scoreboard indicators set up under Regulation (EU) No 1176/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council.

Not applicable.

The Regulation 2015/759 of 29 April 2015, amending Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics of 11 March 2009 [recital 24 and Article 20(4)], stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those data.

Not applicable

For BOP quarterly data, a release calendar is disseminated on the website at http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/news/release-calendar.

A release calendar for MIP scoreboard indicators is not available. The basic data are published in accordance with the Eurostat release calendar.

The MIP Regulation stipulates that “the Commission shall make the set of indicators and the thresholds in the scoreboard public” (Art. 4, para. 6, Regulation (EU) No 1176/2011 of 16 November 2011 on the prevention and correction of macroeconomic imbalances) and that “the Commission shall update the values for the indicators on the scoreboard at least on an annual basis” (Art. 4, para. 8, ib.).

In line with the Community legal framework and the European Statistics Code of Practice Eurostat disseminates European statistics on Eurostat's website (see §10 'Accessibility and clarity') respecting professional independence and in an objective, professional and transparent manner in which all users are treated equitably. The detailed arrangements are governed by the Eurostat protocol on impartial access to Eurostat data for users.

MIP related indicators are updated and released in accordance to the dissemination of the underlying data:

• BoP data: monthly, quarterly and annual
• Remittances, international trade in services and foreign direct investment data: annual.

News releases on-line

The indicators are part of the MIP Scoreboard used to identify emerging or persistent macroeconomic imbalances in EU Member States. The Scoreboard is part of an annual exercise, where the first step is the compilation of an Alert Mechanism Report (AMR).

See data availability for the different tables (see § 3.8 for the labels corresponding to each table code).

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The methodological framework followed in the compilation of the Balance of Payments is that defined in the IMF’s Balance of Payments and International Investment Positions Manual, Sixth Edition (BPM6).

A summary of national methodologies used for the compilation of BoP by members of the European Union can be found in the ECB publication "European Union Balance of Payments and International Investment Position statistical sources and methods" published in November 2016.

Eurostat's mission is to provide the European Union with a high-quality statistical information service - see: Eurostat quality framework. Eurostat prepares national annual Quality Reports for the balance of payments, international trade in services and foreign direct investment in accordance with Commission Regulation (EC) No 1227/2010 of 20 December 2010 implementing Regulation (EC) No 184/2005 (OJ No L 283/3). It contains information on relevance, accuracy, timeliness, punctuality, accessibility, clarity, comparability and coherence. The latest overview report  "Quality report on balance of payments (BOP), international trade in services (ITS) and foreign direct investment (FDI)" provides analysis for data transmitted until September 2020.

Moreover, the statistics underlying the Scoreboard indicators are subject to a specific quality assurance framework developed within the MIP context.

Quality is assured by the application of the concepts according to the IMF’s Balance of Payments and International Investment Positions Manual, Sixth Edition (BPM6) and thorough validation of the data delivered by countries. 

For the quality assurance of the statistics underlying the MIP Eurostat and the DG Statistics of the European Central Bank signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) establishing a mutual recognition of the respective ESS and ESCB quality assurance frameworks, when the Member States have designated their National Central Banks for producing the datasets: Balance of payments and international investment position statistics and Financial accounts.

Eurostat prepares national annual Quality Reports for the balance of payments, international trade in services and foreign direct investment in accordance with Commission Regulation (EC) No 1227/2010 of 20 December 2010 implementing Regulation (EC) No 184/2005 (OJ No L 283/3). It contains information on relevance, accuracy, timeliness, punctuality, accessibility, clarity, comparability and coherence. The latest overview report  "Quality report on balance of payments (BOP), international trade in services (ITS) and foreign direct investment (FDI)" provides analysis for data transmitted until September 2020.

The ECB publishes separate quality report on Euro Area and national balance of payments and international investment position statistics. The structure of Eurostat and ECB reports is the result of a Joint Task Force on alignment of the quality reports.

The quality assurance framework for the Macroeconomic imbalance procedure (MIP) follows a three-level structure:

The first level assesses the reliability and comparability of MIP underlying statistics and addresses relevant quality issues; it also enhances the communication on quality assurance of MIP statistics towards the European Parliament and Council, policy makers and the public at large. This level draws on the information gathered in levels two and three (see below).

The second level consists of domain-specific quality reports produced by Eurostat and the ECB summarising the main findings for the euro area or the EU Member States. Reports assess the underlying compilation process and its robustness, describe its legal basis and evaluate whether the statistics are in line with international statistical standards.

The third level consists of national quality reports (self-assessments) produced by the institution compiling the national statistics. Most of these reports are voluntarily published by Members States on the CMFB’s website and their availability depends upon the statistical domain.

The indicator Current account balance is one of the headline indicators of the MIP Scoreboard. The MIP Scoreboard is used as an early warning system in the context of the macroeconomic surveillance of the EU Member States. The MIP Scoreboard consists of a set of fourteen indicators, covering the major sources of macroeconomic imbalances. The aim of the scoreboard is to trigger in-depth studies, which will do analyses to determine whether potential imbalances identified in the early-warning system are benign or problematic.

Not available.

Data offer complete and consistent description of the components of the Balance of Payments and ITS components with their geographical breakdown and in accordance with IMF’s Balance of Payments and International Investment Positions Manual, Sixth Edition (BPM6). Recalculation of data series for statistics before 2014 according to the new methodology are provided by Member States on a voluntary basis.

The Introduction part of the Statistical annex of each Alert mechanism report provides detailed information on data completeness. 

The indicators are associated with a high level of overall accuracy. Data transmitted by the Member States are checked in Eurostat for their consistency and plausibility. If any problem is found, Eurostat contacts the relevant Member State for checking the figures or confirming the changes.
Data on goods are based on International Trade in Goods Statistics, which are often collected by customs' administrations. Data on services come from a variety of surveys where data can be reported either by banks or directly by enterprises or households.
At the European level, accuracy of GDP is regularly monitored in the framework of the GNI (Gross National Income) Committee and technical aspects are regularly analysed in several working groups and technical committees.

Not applicable

Not applicable

BOP monthly data are released within 7 weeks after reference period.

BOP Quarterly data:

• A first estimate for the EU and Euro Area aggregates is published 7 weeks after the reference period.
• The complete BoP quarterly dataset, as well as quarterly IIP and revaluations are published 3 months and 1 week after the reference period.

BoP annual data (on which the MIP headline indicator is calculated) are updated as soon as the corresponding quarterly data are available.

Annual Foreign direct investments (FDI) data are released around 11 - 12 months after the reference period. Preliminary data, with limited detail for partners and posts, are released 4 - 5 months after the reference period.

Punctuality depends on the delivery of basic data used for the calculation of MIP indicators. Eurostat monitors closely punctuality of basic data delivery by countries. Generally countries meet the delivery deadlines very well (44 days after the reference period for BOP monthly data, 82-85 days after the reference period for the complete quarterly BoP dataset and quarterly IIP and revaluations, 9 months after the reference period for annual international trade in services and foreign direct investment transactions, income and positions, 21 months after the reference period for activity breakdown of foreign direct investment transactions and positions).

The underlying methodological framework, which is defined in BPM6, ensures a high degree of comparability across countries. Commission Regulation (EU) No 555/2012 contains the questionnaires as well as all details on the coding system, data format and deadlines for transmission. Each country compiles its BoP statistics using data coming from a number of surveys and administrative sources.
Questionnaires and data requests with all details and explanations concerning requested item, geographical and activity breakdowns are included in Balance of Payments Vademecum 2020.

The methodologies used by Member States when compiling the BoP are covered in the country chapters of the ECB's publication 'European Union Balance of Payments/International Investment Position statistical methods'.

Data are generally considered highly comparable over time. The methodology is revised according to the revisions of the IMF's Balance of Payments Manual, Sixth edition (BPM6). In some countries, methodological breaks can affect the time series (normally on a temporary basis). Backward calculations of time series are provided to ensure full time coherence in a case of methodological changes.

More information on national data can be found on the Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board of the IMF (International Monetary Fund).

For euro area balance of payments, please refer to http://dsbb.imf.org/Pages/SDDS/DQAFBase.aspx?ctycode=EMU&catcode=BOP00

BoP data can be related with some of the data published by National Accounts domain (in particular with the figures appearing inside the Rest of the World account) and with the aggregate figures on imports and exports of goods published by Foreign Trade Statistics.

Consistency is checked between quarterly balance of payments and annual international trade in services and foreign direct investment statistics, as well as between monthly and quarterly BoP. Data are also reconciled between international investment position, financial account transactions and other flows.

Not applicable

Monthly, quarterly and annual data are revised with the updated information transmitted by Member States, according to the timetable specified in the BoP Vademecum. Major changes in methodology are the result of legislation (or due to other reasons) and therefore announced in the Official Journal of the European Union.

Monthly data are transmitted 44 days after the reference month. First release of quarterly data is calculated as sum of monthly data and should be considered as provisional. Quarterly data are revised when more detailed information (by components and geographical breakdown) is transmitted by Member States 82-85 days after the reference quarter. Quarterly data are also revised when information for the next quarters is provided by Member States. Finally, quarterly data are also subject to revision when the annual data are published, in order to ensure consistency between quarterly and annual figures.

Data published by Eurostat are compiled on the basis of data provided by Member States.
Each year or quarter, national central banks or national statistical offices of the Member States provide Eurostat with data according to a set of questionnaires approved by all Member States and designed to fulfil a set of requirements. The Balance of Payments Vademecum is the reference text for national BoP compilers. This document contains the questionnaires, all details on the coding system, the data format, and the deadlines for transmission.
Each country compiles its BoP statistics using the data coming from a number of surveys and administrative sources. Methods used for the collection and compilation of statistics differ among BoP items within a country, as well as among countries.

Data for BoP item Goods are generally based on International Trade in Goods Statistics, which are often collected by customs' administrations.

Data for BoP item Services come from a variety of surveys where data can be reported either by banks or directly by enterprises or households.

Data for BoP item Primary Income are generally estimated using information coming from the banking sector and other financial institutions.

Data for BoP item Secondary income generally come from administrative sources.

Data for BoP Financial account and International investment position generally come from banks and from other financial and non financial institutions.

Not applicable

The Balance of Payments Vademecum is the reference text for national BoP compilers. Once data are compiled by national authorities in the reporting format they are transmitted to Eurostat.
Information on BOP compilation systems in individual countries can also be found in each SDDS country page published in the IMF's Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board in the section "Balance of Payments".

Eurostat submits all data received from the reporting countries to a number of checks. These checks verify the plausibility of the data (e.g. the development of time series), their internal consistency (aggregates should match the sum of the sub-items), presence of outliers, size of revisions, their correspondence with data already disseminated by the same country on its NCB or NSI web-page. Validation rules are described in Balance of Payments Vademecum 2020.

Time of recording: in line with the BPM6, recording is on a transaction basis ("accruals principle"), meaning that transactions have to be recorded when economic value is created, transformed, transferred or extinguished. The main criterion is change of ownership. The change may be legal or economic. Valuation: in principle, market prices are used.

In the compilation of the BoP, responsibility is shared between Eurostat and the ECB. A Memorandum of Understanding (with a BoP Annex) has been signed between the two parties.

Not applicable

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