Banco de Portugal

Statistics Department – External Statistics Division

Banco de Portugal, Statistics Department, External Statistics Division, Avenida Almirante Reis 71, 1150-012 Lisboa, Portugal

The different domains relevant for external sector statistics (Balance of Payments -BOP, International Investment Position - IIP, Foreign Direct Investment - FDI, and International Trade in Services - ITS) sent to Eurostat are based on the BOP Vademecum reflecting requirements laid down in the Regulation (EC) No 184/2005 on Community statistics concerning BOP, ITS, and FDI, as amended by the Commission Regulation (EU) No 555/2012 of 22 June 2012 and Regulation (EU) No 2016/1013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2016.

These datasets are broadly in line with the sixth edition of the IMF’s Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual (BPM6), the OECD Benchmark Definition of Foreign Direct Investment (BD4) and the Manual on Statistics of International Trade in services 2010 (MSITS 2010).

Monthly and quarterly BOP summarize transactions between residents and nonresidents during a specific period. BOP data consist of the goods and services account, the primary income account, the secondary income account, the capital account, and the functional categories of the financial account (direct investment, portfolio investment, financial derivatives and employee stock options, other investment and reserve assets). Differences between the current and capital account on the one hand and the financial account on the other hand are visible under Net errors and omissions that result from imperfections in source data, inconsistent reporting by enterprises and compilation issues. 

Quarterly IIP shows for a country all financial claims on nonresidents and a country’s liabilities to nonresidents at a certain point in time. The breakdown follows the functional categories of the financial account (direct investment, portfolio investment, financial derivatives (other than reserve assets) and employee stock options, other investment, and reserve assets). The sign of the balance shows whether the domestic economic sectors have a net creditor or net debtor position vis-à-vis other countries. The other changes in financial assets and liabilities accounts (revaluations due to exchange rate, revaluations due to other price changes and other changes in the volume) reconcile the balance of payments and IIP for a specific period, by showing changes due to economic events other than transactions between residents and nonresidents.

Annual FDI statistics (consisting of financial account transactions, current account primary income figures and IIP position data) is a category of cross-border investment associated with a resident in one economy (direct investor) having control or a significant degree of influence on the management of an enterprise that is resident in another economy (direct investment enterprise). By convention, such a lasting interest exists when a direct investor owns 10% or more of the voting power or the equivalent (for an unincorporated enterprise). Operational definitions of control and influence are explained in BPM6 § 6.12. Furthermore, the definition of direct investment is the same as in the fourth edition of the OECD Benchmark Definition of Foreign Direct Investment.

Annual ITS statistics record services transactions between residents and non-residents and cover the following categories: manufacturing services on physical inputs owned by others; Maintenance and repair services, not included elsewhere; transport; travel; construction; insurance and pension services; financial services; charges for the use of intellectual property, not included elsewhere; telecommunication, computer and information services; other business services; personal, cultural and recreational services; and government goods and services, not included elsewhere. The services categories are listed in the Extended Balance of Payments Services Classification (EBOPS 2010).

Classification used for the BOP, IIP, FDI and ITS statistics are in broad conformity with guidelines outlined in the relevant manual (e.g., BPM6, BD4).

Nonfinancial transactions in the BOP are generally grouped according to their nature and characteristics. Produced assets are covered in the goods and services account. Primary income captures returns for the provision of labour and financial assets and for renting of natural resources. Secondary income captures further redistribution of income through current transfers, such as by governments, private households or charitable organization in cash or in kind. The capital account is split into gross acquisitions and disposals of nonproduced nonfinancial assets and other capital transfers.

Positions and flows of financial assets and liabilities are primarily grouped according to the BPM6 functional categories. Five functional categories of investment are distinguished: (a) direct investment, (b) portfolio investment, (c) financial derivatives (other than reserves) and employee stock options, (d) other investment, and (e) reserve assets. These functional categories reflect on economic motivations and patterns of behaviour. Positions, the associated income and financial account transactions, and other changes are based on three broad categories of financial assets and liabilities: (1) equity and investment fund shares, (2) debt instruments, and (3) other financial assets and liabilities.

Annual FDI flows are classified according to the directional principle, that is grouping the FDI transactions according to the status of the resident entity; 1) FDI abroad, if the resident entity is the direct investor or, in the case of transactions between fellows companies, if the “Ultimate Controlling Parent (UCP)” is also located in the compiling economy,  2) FDI in the reporting economy, if the resident entity is the direct investment enterprise or, in the case of transactions between fellows companies, if the “Ultimate Controlling Parent (UCP)” is not located in the compiling economy. In the directional presentation, reverse investment can be seen as equivalent to the withdrawal of investment. The instrument classification differentiates between equity (other than reinvestment of earnings), reinvestment of earnings and debt instruments.

Annual FDI income shows amounts payable and receivable between resident and non-resident entities in return for providing financial direct investment assets to the rest of the world, or incurring direct investment liabilities vis-à-vis the rest of the world. The instrument classification differentiates between dividends, reinvested earnings, and income on debt.

FDI positions are also classified according to the directional principle, split into net FDI positions abroad and net FDI positions in the reporting economy. The instrument classification differentiates between equity (including reinvested earnings) and debt instruments.

For all FDI statistics, the geographical allocation is made according to the economic residence of the immediate direct investor or immediate direct investment enterprise, and the recommended classification by activity is that of the direct investment enterprise (to avoid asymmetry issues).  The industrial activity level is based on ISIC4/NACE Rev.2.

International Trade in Services data are presented in line with the Extended Balance of Payments Services Classification (EBOPS 2010).

Known deviations:

Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 (ESA2010) (par. 5.119) and the BPM6 Manual (par. 5.42) provide that funds between deposit-taking corporations are always recorded as deposits. Concerning deposit/loans liabilities of deposit-taking corporations to other counterparts, BPM6 foresees the additional convention that these are to be recorded as deposits, irrespective of the maturity, while ESA 2010 restricts this to short-term funds. Concerning deposit/loans assets of deposit-taking corporations vis-à-vis other counterparts BPM6 foresees the additional convention that these are to be recorded as loans, while ESA 2010 (in § 5.118) makes a similar reference for short-term loans.

Specifically for euro area: The definition of reserve assets is in line with BPM6 guidelines. However, as a member of the euro area, the definition of monetary reserves in a MS’s BOP includes (inter alia) only those liquid claims denominated in foreign currency that the MS’s central bank holds on non-euro area residents. Claims on residents of other euro area countries, regardless of the currency, are part of other external assets.

Institutional units are grouped into institutional sectors according to similar economic objectives, functions, and behaviour.

The sector classifications based on the BOP Vademecum are:

Central bank (S.121); Monetary Financial Institutions (MFI) other than central bank (S.122) (incl. Deposit-taking corporations except the central bank; Money Market Funds (S.123)); General government (S.13); and Other sectors.

The Other Sectors consist of Financial Corporations other than MFIs (S.12); Non-Financial Corporations (S.11); Households (S.14); and Non-profit institutions serving households (S.15).

Exception to BPM6:

A deviation from the BPM6 sector classification is that Money Market Funds are part of Other sectors (in BPM6) whereas they are part of the MFI sector for European Statistics according to the Vademecum.

The overall conceptual framework of BOP, IIP, FDI and ITS are in broad conformity with the most recent manuals as well as the EC Guidelines and Eurostat’s Vademecum.

Statistical concepts and definitions relate to basic internationally accepted standards and guidelines for external sector statistics; for instance:

• All resident-nonresident transactions covered;
• The concept of residency adhered to;
• For the BOP, the concept of gross reporting is followed for the current and capital account; and the net basis for financial account transactions (separately for the individual asset and liability components);
• The change of economic ownership principle soundly applied;
• FDI is defined as equity ownership representing 10 percent or more of the voting power;
• The accrual basis is broadly applied;
• Market values or appropriate substitute measures are used;#
• the residence of Special Purpose Entities (SPEs) is attributed to the economy in which they are legally domiciled or incorporated;
• Overall, the classification, netting and ordering in the IIP is consistent with BPM6; current, capital, and financial accounts of the balance of payments statement are defined according to the BPM6.

Known Deviation (Source: Vademecum):

BOP/IIP data are to be compiled following the debtor/creditor approach, instead of the “transactor” approach. In other words, the geographical allocation of assets/credits is to be done on the basis of the residency of the issuer/debtor and not of the “transactor”. This is particularly relevant for portfolio and direct investment functional categories, which record tradable instruments. This approach is to be followed consistently in the geographical and sector allocation of investment income, financial transactions and stocks.

Institutional units are defined in conformity with BPM6 and relate to those that have a predominant centre of economic interest in the country. In principle, any individual, corporation or other institution that provides information on the transactions/positions between the residents and non-residents of a country during a given period is included. Resident institutional units engaged with nonresidents also cover in principle:

-       incorporated or unincorporated affiliates of nonresident companies; and SPEs with little or no physical presence;

-       resident territorial enclaves in the rest of the world (e.g., embassies, military basis);

-       free zones/bonded warehouses/factories operated by offshore enterprises under customs control;

-       Citizens who work or live temporarily in another country (seasonal and cross border commuters, students and patients).

Not applicable.

The reference area describes the geographical area covered by the data disseminated. According to the BOP Vademecum, the reference area is the economic territory, country, or region for which external sector statistics are provided. The country code list follows the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 classification and is a "cross-domain" code list, used also in National Accounts. The codes used for various regional groupings are harmonized across international agencies that use the BOP-DSD.

Portugal data includes Açores and Madeira.

Current series comprises data since January 1996.

For main aggregates there is data on an annual basis since 1948.

Not applicable.

All data sent to Eurostat are in Millions of Euro for Euro Area countries and in Millions of National currency for non-Euro Area countries. The unit of dissemination is Euro.

The monthly (MBOP), quarterly (QBOP) BOP, and quarterly FDI transactions summarize economic transactions between residents and nonresidents during the respective reference period.  The annual ITS dataset summarizes services transactions over the period of one year.

The quarterly IIP statement as well as the annual FDI stock statistics refer to a point in time at the end of the reference period; i.e., the last day of a quarter or year, respectively. The other changes in financial assets and liabilities of the IIP statement (revaluations due to exchange rate, revaluations due to other price changes and other changes in the volume) reconcile the BOP and IIP during a specific period.

Institutional Mandate – in national level

Banco de Portugal mandate to compile statistics is based in Article 5 of the Statute of the ESCB and of the ECB, as well as Regulation (EC) No 2533/98. 

The compilation of statistics by Banco de Portugal is governed with the statistical principles of impartiality, objectivity, professional independence, cost-effectiveness, statistical confidentiality, minimisation of the reporting burden and high output reliability, which are reflected in the ESCB’s Public Commitment on European statistics.

The Organic Law of the Banco de Portugal in its article 13 states “The Bank shall ensure the collection and compilation of (...) balance of payments statistics, particularly, within the scope of its co-operation with the ECB.”

Further, the Law for the National Statistical System considers the Banco de Portugal as a national statistical authority that shall pursuit the nationwide statistical obligations without putting in jeopardy its commitment to the ESCB requirements, referring, at the same time, that the Banco de Portugal is the entity responsible for the compilation and the dissemination of b.o.p. and i.i.p. statistics.

Institutional Mandate – in European level

• 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,
• 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
• Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/505 of 19 December 2018
• 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).

Besides rules deriving from the statistical law, Banco de Portugal established memorandums of understanding with several public institutions to have access to data exclusively for statistical purposes, in particular INE - Statistics Portugal.

The confidenciality of individual data is explicitly stated at article 80 of decree-law n.º 298/92, of December 31, on credit institutions and financial institutions which also aplies to Banco de Portugal. Further the national statistical law (law nº 22/2008, of May 13) also describes procedures which should be taken to comply with the principle of statistical secrecy.

The Banco de Portugal internal code of conduct also provides reassurance of the compliance of these principles.

Besides the statistical compilation is also governed by European Regulation  (EC) n.º 2533/98 do Conselho, of November 23, with modifications of Regulation (EC) n.º 951/2009 of October 9. Individual data protection is also established by an ECB Guideline (BCE/1998/NP28).

Furthermore, Banco de Portugal has in place security measures to access its permises as well as to its IT infraestructure in order to prevent access to non-public information.

BOP Vademecum (2021): Chapter V “Statistical confidentiality” of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2009 on European statistics regulates protection and transmissions of confidential data within ESS and ESCB. Confidentiality status attribute is mandatory in BOP and FDI DSDs and thus each observation has to be flagged with a confidentiality status.

When the information is already released and disseminated by the national compiler (e.g. it is published on the national compiler's website) applying confidentiality status attributes such as C "Primary confidential statistical information", D “secondary confidentiality set and managed by the national compiler” or N "Not for publication, restricted for internal use only" is not justified.

Quality issues should be much less frequent for quarterly BOP and IIP data. The confidentiality status attribute "Not for publication, restricted for internal use only" - N flag – shall be used conservatively and rather in cases of more detailed breakdowns (e.g. geographical, instrument or sector breakdown). Using confidentiality status (C or D or N flags) to suppress publication of data with insufficient quality should be avoided. Observation status with U flag (low reliability) should be used instead. This would indicate existing observations and, at the same time, users will be aware of the low quality assigned.

Please refer also to point 7.1.

This indicator refers to Eurostat Quality Report Chapter 1.1.2.The analysis in this section focuses on the availability of the data to the users. The tables present the number of cells flagged as confidential and non - publishable, compared with the total number of cells that have to be provided according to the BOP Regulation.

Eurostat release calendar can be found under http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/news/release-calendar

Banco de Portugal release calendar can be found under https://bpstat.bportugal.pt/api/media/files/Calendario_BPstat_data.html

The publication of the calendar is done in advance and there is no record of changes after its disclosure.

Information is made available freely to the public in BPstat (https://bpstat.bportugal.pt/), the Banco de Portugal’s statistical website, according to the frequency of the data and to the release calendar published each year. 

The information is published for all users at the same time. No privilege is granted to Government structures or other public entities.

Statistical press releases are also published in the same website, in the day that new data is made available.

Eurostat Website:

BOP: monthly and quarterly

FDI flows and stocks: annually

IIP: quarterly and annually        

ITS: annually

Statistical press releases are published in BPstat (https://bpstat.bportugal.pt/), the Banco de Portugal’s statistical website, in the day that new data is made available, to highlight the main developments.

Besides regular press-releases published together with the disclosure of new data, there also other documents available at the Banco de Portugal’s statistical website.

Some are devoted to explain to the general public statistical concepts or how to use the available data. Others present some interesting facts that can be noticed from the statistics.

Furthermore, the Statistics Department of BdP also promotes and participates in several initiatives to foster the statistical literacy.

All this information is disclosed in the Banco de Portugal’s statistical website, where detailed metadata is available both at domain level and at series level.

At Eurostat, the database for external sector statistics gives access to the following statistics:

• Monthly and quarterly BOP and quarterly IIP statistics;
• Annual data on ITS;
• Annual data on FDI positions, transactions and income;
• Detailed data on international transactions involving the European institutions.

Harmonized data is available for the European Union, the euro area, the EU Member States, the United Kingdom, EFTA countries, candidate and potential candidate countries.

 https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/balance-of-payments/data/database

Banco de Portugal publishes external statistics data in https://bpstat.bportugal.pt/dominios/2.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Microdata access is not available. 

Information is shared within the national statistical system, namely for national accounts purposes.

Not applicable.

Metadata, including statistical concepts, documentation, methodology and list for classification purposes are publicly available in BPstat (https://bpstat.bportugal.pt/), the Banco de Portugal’s statistical website, under the label “Metadata”.

Not applicable.

BoP/IIP statistics are subjected to several levels of quality assessment and monitoring:

• Internal quality control of the data;
• Internal checks on the validity and plausibility of the compiled data;
• Monthly discussion within Banco de Portugal;
• Regular meetings with reporting agents;
• Continuous training;
• Quality assessments made by international organizations: ECB, Eurostat, etc;
• Data used in the compilation of national accounts;
• Monitoring of the data by the internal Statistical Quality Unit;
• Statistical compilation process subject to planned audit revisions made by BdP’s Internal Audit Department and by IO, namely the ECB.

This indicator refers to the quality assurance framework (QAF) in place within an organisation to manage the quality of statistical products and processes.

Banco de Portugal acknowledges that quality is a cornerstone of statistical work. For more details, please see 10.7.

This indicator refers to the Eurostat Quality Report Chapter 7 and 8: Overall Assessment.

Regarding Chapter 7, Follow up of last year's Eurostat assessment: A continuous effort is undertaken to maximize the quality of external statistics. Efforts were devoted to analyse administrative data and new sources, in order to reassure the quality of the computed statistics as well as providing extra details that users are requiring while avoiding unnecessary reporting burden. Furthermore, additional automated quality control mechanisms are being developed in 2023 to increase the efficiency and reliability of the data received and used in the BoP and IIP compilation.

Banco de Portugal keeps publishing external statistics series in a timely manner and launched new statistics on foreign direct investment by ultimate investor.

Regarding Chapter 8, Overall assessment: The balance of payments and international investment position statistics produced by Banco de Portugal presents an overall good quality. They are compiled in accordance with the internationally agreed methodological standards, with the timeliness and periodicity required, and as accurate as possible.

Revisions are the result of the efforts made in order to meet users’ needs regarding timely and up-to-date information in a context where not every data source is available with the necessary timeliness and/or with a monthly frequency (e.g., the FDI annual data).

In order to evaluate the quality of balance of payment and international investment position statistics, ongoing work is carried out in Banco de Portugal, not only at the output level, but also at the input and intermediate levels, namely through the elaboration of regular audit reports to the implemented procedures, detailed analysis of revisions and evaluation of new data sources.

To guarantee the quality of results, European statistics shall be developed, produced and disseminated on the basis of uniform standards and of harmonised methods. In this respect, Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council quality criteria (a) ‘relevance’ refers to the degree to which statistics meet current and potential needs of the users. Meeting the requirements of the EC Regulation on community statistics concerning balance of payments, international trade in services and foreign direct investment confirms relevance for the user “Eurostat” as recipient of the data sets on behalf of its user community.

Furthermore, relevance is also indirectly accomplished by countries participating in domain specific committees and working groups as well as the worldwide update of the manuals whose aim it is to keep the standards and statistics as relevant as possible going forward.

Data can be freely accessed in BPstat (https://bpstat.bportugal.pt/), the Banco de Portugal’s statistical website. Our internal monitoring of its use allows us to conclude that users of these data are very diverse, as we can identify users from public entities, academia or the media.

On a regular basis we perform user satisfaction inquiries and the last one, which reflect high appreciation from the users for Banco de Portugal Statistics.

This section refers to the current Eurostat Quality Report 1.1.1. Data availability- completeness.

Data completeness – the provided cells expressed as % of required cells refers to the completeness of BOP, IIP, FDI and ITS data provided to Eurostat based on the requirements of the BOP Regulation.

Accuracy of data is the closeness of computations or estimates to the exact or true values that the statistics were intended to measure.

Accuracy is being measured using three concepts: Reliability; Vintage Analysis; and Plausibility. See 13.1.

This section refers to the current Eurostat Quality Report Chapter 2.  

(i) Accuracy can be measured using the concept of Reliability - defined as the closeness of the initial estimated value to the subsequent estimated value. This section refers to the current Eurostat Quality Report 2.1.1. Quantitative assessment of revisions. Complementary information on Revisions are also provided under S17 Data Revision.

The quantitative analysis focuses on the size of revisions, their direction and the reliability of trends using the data provided by countries to Eurostat.

For the Monthly BOP, Quarterly BOP and Quarterly IIP items, revisions are assessed using two types of indicators both of which are based on the comparison between first and last assessments:

- Directional stability indicators measure how often the first assessment is subsequently revised in the same direction (the upward revisions ratio and the directional reliability indicator).

- Relative size indicators measure the difference between the first and the last assessments. These absolute differences may be quantified relative to the underlying series (when strictly positive) or to the underlying outstanding amounts. These indicators are the symmetric mean absolute percentage ratio, mean absolute comparative ratio and for net/balance series the net relative revisions.

(ii) Accuracy can be measured using the concept of Vintage Analysis. This section refers to the current Eurostat Quality Report 2.1.2 Vintage Analysis. For the assessment of annual data (ITSS, credit and debit, FDI flows and positions, inward and outward), the analysis focuses on the differences between the values as reported in the last 4 data deliveries to Eurostat. The counterpart area is Extra EU27 and Rest of the World.

(iii) Accuracy can be measured using the concept of Plausibility – referring to the absence of unexplained changes. This section refers to the current Eurostat Quality Report 2.2. Plausibility. This concept calculates the share of unallocated partner or activity from total (%) for ITS, FDI flows and positions.

The first estimates of bop flows are made six weeks after the end of each month/quarter and are based on information reported to Banco de Portugal by banks, enterprises and other internal data sources. New data that becomes available after that period may result in revisions of bop items and/or geographical breakdown. Current revisions rely mainly on new information provided by banks, enterprises and other internal or external data sources.

In the specific case of direct investment flows, positions and income, the largest revisions are made when the annual questionnaire on FDI becomes available (IES - Simplified Corporate Information), usually at T+13 months after the end of the reference year.

Not applicable as the compilation is based on censitary information.. 

Not applicable. 

Not applicable. 

Not applicable. 

The COPE (Communication of external transactions and positions) report is a mandatory report for all resident entities that have an annual turnover over €100 000 per year. Besides, other sources used also regard information for all relevant agents, for instance on issuance and holdings of securities, or on data on operations performed by financial institutions. Therefore compilation procedures do not encompass any extrapolation procedures.

We have not identified overlappings in the current use of sources. This does not mean that we do not have interceptions in sources that we access. In this case we prioritize one of them and use the remaining as tool for validation procedures.

Not applicable. 

Not applicable. 

Measurement error is minimized through several controls.

Compilation of BoP/IIP uses a very diverse set of data sources, though the COPE (Communication of external transactions and positions) report is the dedicated source for this domain.

The data received is analysed by BdP's team and reporting agents are questioned whenever data does not seem to be completely correct or when major transactions exist, in order to gather additional information on the underlying operations.

Furthermore, in order to reach final outputs, all sources have to be reconciled, which also contributes to minimize misclassifications and other errors. As some sources have longer disclosure delays this can lead to revisions which follow the Banco de Portugal revision policy.

Finally, the data is used in the national accounts compilation, where further reconciliation is performed.

Not applicable. 

As described in previous points, the BoP/IIP is compiled using information regarding all relevant agents and BdP has in place procedures to minimize non-response cases. BdP’s team confirms that non-response is acceptable and, in cases of non-compliance, the reporting agent is asked to provide some preliminary information.

Despite the very low non-response rates in terms of amount, BdP has procedures to overcome non-response and to minimize future revisions. These procedures are based on (i) cross-border settlements, reported to BdP by banks on behalf of their customers and/or (ii) on the past reporting of the non-respondent and/or (iii) on tax report information.

Thus, the real non-response rate in final outputs is rather small.

Please see 13.3.3.1.

Not applicable. 

Not applicable. 

According to the provisions of the Commission Regulation (EU) No 184/2005 and ECB Guideline ECB/2011/23 datasets are reported by countries to Eurostat with the following timeliness:

The BOP regulation defines the timeliness and sets the deadlines for the data transmission to Eurostat as follows:

-      Monthly BOP: 44 days after the end of the reference period;

-      Quarterly BOP, quarterly IIP and quarterly revaluations: 82/85 days after the end of the reference period;

-      ITS: 9 months after the end of the reference period;

-      FDI: 9 months after the end of the reference period (21 months for the activity breakdown).

Portugal fully complies with international reporting calendars.

At national level, the publication is set to be done according to the pre-announced calendar. This normally occurs between 7 and 8 weeks after the end of the reference period.

There are no preliminary or partial disclosure of data for these domains. The data is subject to the Banco de Portugal’s revision policy.

Portugal fully complies with international reporting calendars.

At national level, the publication is set to be done according to the pre-announced calendar. This normally occurs between 7 and 8 weeks after the end of the reference period.

There are no preliminary or partial disclosure of data for these domains. The data is subject to the Banco de Portugal’s revision policy.

Portugal fully complies with international reporting calendars.

This indicator refers to Eurostat Quality Report 3.1 Punctuality.

Punctuality is calculated as the actual date of data delivery minus the scheduled date of transmission to Eurostat. It shows how many calendar days this was behind (positive value) or ahead of (negative value) the legal deadline.

Coherence refers to the adequacy of the data to be reliably combined in different ways and for various uses.

In the Eurostat Quality Report, the analysis of coherence focuses on two aspects: internal consistency, that examines to which extent data are coherent within the dataset, and external consistency, that examines to which extent data are coherent with others statistics (e.g., NA) obtained by different sources or within different statistical frameworks.

Comparability refers to the measurement of the impact of differences in applied statistical concepts and methodologies, measurement tools and procedures applied, when statistics are compared between geographical areas, sectoral domains (e.g., with QSA, ITGS data) or over time. 

This indicator refers to Chapter 5.3.1 and the corresponding tables of the Eurostat Quality Report: Asymmetries with regard to main ITS and FDI items.

Further information and country-specific feedback is provided below. 

Geographical breakdown is obtained from source data and are compiled nationwide. No data at detailed NUTS level are currently published.

This section refers to the current Eurostat Quality Report 5.3.1. Bilateral Intra-EU asymmetries are presented in Annex 3 to the Eurostat Quality report.

Asymmetries are the result of differences in measurement, in the procedures applied and in the interpretation of statistical concepts. Thus, asymmetries can be regarded as a measure of comparability.

National compilers are encouraged to perform regular checks of their FDI transactions and positions through the FDI network and possibly conduct bilateral exercises to reduce asymmetries in services.

Asymmetries are mainly explained by some potential methodological differences between countries. In the case of Portugal, absolute asymmetries in total services are larger vis-a-vis major partner countries of the Portuguese economy, but in most cases these asymmetries are not relevant in relative terms. Relative asymmetries are shown mostly for countries with international transactions less significant. Banco de Portugal will continue working actively in the context of the FDI Network and of the ARM initiative, as well as with bilateral contacts with countries to reduce the asymmetries.

The disclosed data at the portal is fully consistent and there are no breaks in the series.

Portugal series cover the period since January 1996 using consistent assumptions and concepts.

Furthermore, on an annual basis and for main aggregates, data is also available since 1948, which can be analysed together with the curent observations.

Methodological guidelines for compiling BoP, ITS and FDI statistics are defined by the Balance of Payments manual of the IMF (6th edition) and further specified by Manual on Statistics of International Trade in Services of the United Nations and the OECD Benchmark Definition of Foreign Direct Investments (4th edition).

Methodological guidelines for compiling BOP, IIP, FDI and ITS statistics are defined by the BPM6, the Manual on Statistics of International Trade in Services of the United Nations, and the OECD Benchmark Definition of Foreign Direct Investments (BD4). 

Portugal BoP/IIP is compliant with BPM6 framework, namely on concepts of residence, economic ownership, market valuation and accrual principal

The methodology for Goods and Services is outlined in Chapter 10 of the IMF BPM6. For community statistics, countries are expected to record different values for Goods “national” and “community” concepts, if applicable. 

The methodology for Goods and Services is outlined in Chapter 10 of the IMF BPM6.

The methodology for Primary Income is outlined in Chapter 11 of the IMF BPM6.

The methodology for Secondary Income is outlined in Chapter 12 of the IMF BPM6.

The methodology for the Capital Account is outlined in Chapter 13 of the IMF BPM6.

The methodology for Direct Investment is outlined in Chapters 6, 8 and Appendix 6 of the IMF BPM6.

The methodology for Portfolio Investment is outlined in Chapters 6, and 8 of the IMF BPM6.

The methodology for Other Investment is outlined in Chapters 6, and 8 of the IMF BPM6.

The methodology for Financial Derivatives is outlined in Chapters 6, and 8 of the IMF BPM6.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

These indicators refer to Chapter 6 and the corresponding tables of the Eurostat Quality Report: Coherence.

The comparability between BOP, IIP, FDI, ITS and National accounts is ensured by the application of common concepts and definitions of BPM6 and the 2008 SNA/ESA 2010.

Further information and country-specific feedback is provided below. 

As data from some other domains is taken onboard the compilation of BoP/IIP, there is consistency by construction with those domains. However it should be taken into account that not all statistical domains follow the metodological guidance that underlines the BoP/IIP compilation. Therefore, this must be considered when performing comparison in those cases. The case of the ITGS is the most proeminent one.

Regarding National Accounts, at the 2019 bechmark revision, Banco de Portugal an PT-INE - Statistics Portugal made an effort to reconcile their data. This was successfully attained, appart from two issues that remain: the treatment of SPE and the use of the CIF-FOB transformation, as the current methological referencials for each domain are consistent in theory but some diverse interpretation space exists. Appart from these issues, minor differences may be found due to vintages of source data

Portugal BoP/IIP data is compiled monthly for transactions and quarterly for positions and other flows. All other periodicities result from aggregation of these. Thus, monthly, quarterly and annual statistics are all consistent among them. 

This indicator refers to Eurostat Quality Report Chapter 6.2.1: BOP/ITGS reconciliation. The corresponding table – to be completed by countries is part of the Quality Report Annex 2 and is included in the Metadata Handler in form of a separate Excel Sheet.  

ITGS cover goods “which add to or subtract from the stock of material resources of a country by entering (imports) or leaving (exports) its economic territory” (United Nations IMTS: Concepts and Definitions 1998, paragraph 14). This basis differs from the change of ownership between residents and nonresidents required for BOP, so adjustments are needed.

Please refer to BPM6 § 10.17 for cases that are included in the BOP definition of general merchandise because there is a change of ownership of goods between a resident and a nonresident.

Please refer to BPM6 § 10.22 for items to be excluded from general merchandise because there is no international transaction because there is no change of ownership of goods between a resident and a nonresident, or because the goods have no value. 

BoP data on goods is built upon the latest available vintage of ITGS data, however some differences may arise. These can be grouped in the following main points:

• Coverage: ITGS takes into account mainly the physical movements 'in' and 'out' of the country, while BoP data considers changes in the economic ownership. This difference leads to the exclusion of items under processing (net figures are considered under services) and the inclusion of merchanting, which is not considered under ITGS framework. Furthermore, items that cross the border under long-term operational leasing are considered in ITGS but excluded from goods account;
• Valuation – According to ITGS rules, items are valued FOB for exports and CIF for imports. On the BoP framework, both imports and exports are valued FOB. The CIF-FOB margin, which is deducted from ITGS imports is allocated to services and current transfers on the share that is provided by non-residents.

This indicator refers to Eurostat Quality Report Chapter 6.2.2: Consistency with National Accounts. The corresponding tables in the Eurostat Quality Report assess the external consistency between the BOP and Rest-of-the-World Account in NA. As the concepts for the BOP and NA accounting frameworks are, in principle, consistent with one another, an assessment of the consistency concludes on how far these two accounting frameworks have been consolidated with each other. 

It should be mentioned that some methodological issues remain, which prevent further convergence: 1) treatment of SPE. BdP considers these entities in bop/iip as any other resident entity, while PT-INE consider in the rest of the world account only the activity of this entity in the national territory; 2) treatment of part of the insurance component of the CIF-FOB margin. BdP in bop/iip deducts gross premiums from ITG data valued at CIF and reallocates these amounts to services and secondary income, while PT-INE only deducts the service part of the premium, which reallocates to services. Further, some differences may arise from different vintages of data considered within each domain. However it should be mentioned that a continuous cooperation between BdP and PT-INE is ongoing in order to monitor the comparisons between bop/iip and national accounts.

These indicators refer to Chapter 6 and the corresponding tables of the Eurostat Quality Report: Coherence. 

This indicator refers to Eurostat Quality Report Chapter 6.1.2 Consistency between quarterly and annual data: The Quality Report Tables monitor the progress made in aligning quarterly and annual data.

For example, ITS and FDI annual data are compared with the sum of the corresponding four quarters for partners Extra EU27 and Rest of the World.

Portugal external statistics are all compiled with processes that ensure consistency among them. 

This indicator refers to Eurostat Quality Report Chapter 6.1.3 Consistency between quarterly and monthly data: Quarters are compared with the sum of the corresponding three months for partners Extra EU27 and Rest of the World for Goods, Services and Secondary Income and partner Rest of the World for Primary Income. The discrepancy, computed as difference between the sum of the monthly and the quarterly data, is also shown as a share of the quarterly value. 

Portugal external statistics are all compiled with processes that ensure consistency among them. 

This indicator refers to Eurostat Quality Report Chapter 6.1.4 Consistency between BOP and IIP figures. 

Most of the differences displayed on the table are very close to zero, mainly due to rounding issues. Even the differences on assets and liabilities by functional category (shadowed in yellow), which are a bit higher are also due to rounding issues.

The larger difference highlighted in orange arises from the fact that in the report of Eurostat the price valuation flow is not foreseen for the instrument 'F4 - loans'. Nevertheless, situations occur that result in the recording of such flows. As an example, loans originally granted by resident financial institutions to resident entities are sold to non-residents by a different amount of their nominal value. According to the BPM6, this operation will result in the recording of a liability of the resident debtor vis-a-vis non-residents: stocks are registered at nominal value, transactions reflect the amount paid for the loan and the difference is registered as a price valuation. Thus, it would make sense to adjust the consistency tests to include this possibility.

This indicator refers to Eurostat Quality Report Chapter 6.1.5 Errors and Omissions (E&O). Although the BOP accounts are, in principle, balanced, imbalances result in practice from imperfections in source data and compilation. This imbalance is labelled net errors and omissions. According to BPM6 § 2.25, “a consistent sign indicates a bias in one or more components. A persistent positive value of net errors and omissions suggests that credit entries have been understated or omitted or debit entries have been overstated. In contrast, a volatile pattern may suggest timing problems. However, although net errors and omissions can help point to some problems, it is an incomplete measure because errors and omissions in opposite directions offset each other.”

The size and the sign of the E&O item are analysed in the Eurostat Quality Report Tables.

Portugal monitors closely the evolution of E&O and makes all the efforts to keep them below the thresholds defined to ensure quality of the BoP data.

The Banco de Portugal always assumed a strategy to have quality statistics in an efficient manner, minimizing costs for both reportants and for the compilation procedure.

In some cases, we assumed that administrative data is of sufficient quality to prevent dedicated questionaires. Within that strategy, further developments on the fiscal infraestrure are monitored to assess the replacement of other sources.

It should also be mentioned that BoP/IIP team always explains the importance of the data that is being reported and that this is the best approach to fullfill national and internation data obligation, assuring high quality of the results.

Source: A Harmonised European Revision Policy for Macroeconomic Statistics; CMFB October 2017. Macroeconomic statistics, such as national accounts, the balance of payments and the international investment position, are produced from a large variety of data sources. These data sources are reconciled using an approach based on an agreed set of international guidelines. The sources used to estimate macroeconomic aggregates are provided with varying degrees of timeliness, taking up to three years or more in the case of structural sources. As users need national and international data as fast as possible, particularly on certain key aggregates like gross domestic product (GDP), data are produced using the sources and related indicators that are more readily available. As more complete data are obtained from these sources in due course and the structural sources are made available, the statistics are updated to incorporate the new information.

Such revisions of macroeconomic statistics are necessary to improve quality, but can be inconvenient for users. To minimise this inconvenience, revisions should ideally be coordinated within one country, across different statistics, and then across countries. International comparability – and the compilation of EU and euro area aggregate statistics – is hampered when different revision policy schemes are applied in different countries. As the schedule of revision of national accounts and balance of payments statistics varies from country to country, this creates inconsistencies among different statistical domains.

The European Statistical System (ESS) and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) try to strike the right balance between incorporating the necessary statistical revisions and maintaining an acceptable degree of consistency across domains and countries. To this end, the two systems have worked together to draw up guidelines for a harmonised revision policy for macroeconomic statistics.

A distinction should be made between 'routine' revisions and 'major' or 'benchmark' revisions. Routine revisions refer to the changes made to the economic data published initially and to its subsequent releases for a particular reference quarter or year. The earlier estimates typically undergo the most significant revision. In routine revisions, the number of past periods being revised (the 'depth' of the revision) is typically relatively limited. Benchmark revision is carried out at much longer time intervals. Its purpose is to incorporate the main new data sources and major changes in international statistical methodology (such as ESA 2010 or BPM6). In benchmark revision, many years are open for revision in order to create the longest possible consistent time series.

The National Statistical Offices and the National Central Banks are not legally bound by this common policy, but voluntarily agree to it and commit to gradually implement it with the aim of delivering more consistent statistics to users. The level of adherence to the guidelines of countries' revision policies will be monitored regularly.

The Banco de Portugal revision policy is available at https://www.bportugal.pt/en/page/revision-policy

Banco de Portugal follows its revision policy, which is aligned with international practices, and is available at https://www.bportugal.pt/en/page/revision-policy.

Not applicable. 

This quality concept refers to whether the composition of data sources (surveys, ITRS (International Transactions Reporting System), administrative data, ITGS, monetary and financial statistics, etc.), in principle, sufficiently covers the compilation of BOP, IIP, FDI and ITS. 

The Banco de Portugal compilation process relies on several sources besides direct reporting for this statistical domain. The complementary sources not only cover data gaps but are also used for quality control of the former.

The system relies on:

• Direct reporting by economic agents for this domain:
• Monthly report of transactions and positions with non-resident counterparts (so-called COPE, Comunicação de Operações com o Exterior) – incorporated entities with external relations (amounts paid plus amounts received) of an amount exceeding € 100 000 per year have to report monthly all operations with non-residents classified according to b.o.p. nomenclature together with information about the residency of the counterpart and the currency underlying the operation. Also within this report these agents have to transmit end of month positions on deposits, loans and trade-credits and advances.
• Monthly report of settlements through the resident banking system (so-called COL, Comunicação de Operações de Liquidação) – national monetary financial institutions report to the Banco de Portugal on a monthly basis liquidation operations between residents and non-residents without any statistical classification.
• Transactions and positions survey on financial derivatives (so-called QDF, Questionário de Derivados Financeiros) – it is a monthly report to the Banco de Portugal made by monetary financial institutions and social security funds with information on transactions and end of period positions on financial derivatives of own and clients operations vis-à-vis non-residents.
• Other sources, namely the following:
• Other Monetary financial institutions (OMFIs) balance sheet information – monthly outstanding amounts of loans and deposits vis-à-vis non-residents are taken from this Banco de Portugal reporting framework, which was established to fulfil ESCB statistical requirements on MFIs balance sheet information.
• Central bank balance sheet information – information for outstanding amounts and flows vis-à-vis non-residents for all financial instruments is taken from a statistical framework similar to the one for OMFIs.
• Securities Statistics Integrated System (SSIS) – it is a Banco de Portugal statistical database with security-by-security and investor-by-investor information (except for households that is only available on an aggregated basis) which is used to obtain monthly information on issues by resident agents, together with end of period holdings on securities issued by residents and holdings of residents on securities issued by non-residents.
• Foreign trade statistics – a national statistical institute (INE - Portugal) l domain which deals with data on international trade in goods. This considers two different procedures: on one hand intra-EU trade which is based on the Intrastat; on the other rest-of-the-world trade that relies on administrative sources (customs forms).
• Centralized Securities Database (CSDB) – an Eurosystem database with detailed information on securities.
• Central Balance-sheet database – it is a Banco de Portugal database with non-financial corporations´ quarterly and annual accounting data. This database is feed with information from: a survey jointly managed with the national statistical institute with quarterly accounting information; the annual Simplified Corporation Information system that merges requirements on corporations´ annual accounts for fiscal, registry and statistical purposes.
• Administrative information from fiscal authorities – the Portuguese fiscal authorities deliver to the Banco de Portugal information on foreign income received by residents.
• Monthly information on uses of payment cards and of transfers – this block of information comes from the Payments Department of the Banco de Portugal and is used for both tourism and private transfers compilation areas.
• Information provided by the Bank for International Settlements on a quarterly basis of the outstanding amounts of cross border positions, by residence and sector of counterpart.

Please refer to Table Data-Sources Detail.

The production model is mostly based on monthly information, but for further details see 18.1.

The following sub-categories refer to the Extended Balance of Payments Services Classification (EBOPS 2010) data collection. The EBOPS 2010 classification provides a breakdown of the Balance of Payments Trade in Services items (debit and credit) as defined in BPM6, by types of services. The classification thereby meets a number of user requirements, including the provision of more detailed information on Trade in services as required in connection with the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).

EBOPS 2010 is a primarily product-based classification of types of services, which in many cases may be described in terms of international classification of products as contained in CPC Ver. 2. However, the classification also includes transaction-based criteria (for example, Travel, Government services, and Construction Services).

Data are gathered from multiple sources. Outputs are subject to a set of consistency and integrity tests, followed by integration in harmonized databases for analysis and compilation.

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Manufacturing services on physical inputs owned by others
Maintenance and repair services n.i.e.
Transport
Travel
Construction
Insurance and pension services
Financial services
Charges for the use of intellectual property n.i.e.
Telecommunications, computer, and information services
Other business services
Personal, cultural, and recreational services
Government goods and services n.i.e.

Yes

During the compilation process data several validation processes are in place. At the end, a thorough consistency analysis is performed in order to detect problems and to assess the E&O.

After this phase, internal and consistency tests are performed before considering the data as usable and publishable.

Compilation results from running procedures to gather and aggregate the data from all sources available for each item. Each BoP/IIP item is compiled according to the best information to our knowledge and, besides raw data made available to the team, it also emcompases discussions with colleagues from other statistical domains and with reporting units.

Not applicable.

No adjustment is done to compilation outputs.

Seasonal adjustments (with trading days effects) are performed for series requested at the ECB's external statistics guideline.