/ EUROPEAN COMMISSION
EUROSTAT
Directorate C National accounts, prices and key indicators
Unit C2 National and regional accounts production. Balance of Payments

17 November 2015

BP/15/22

Balance of Payments

Working Group

November 2015

Starting: Wednesday, 25 November 2015 at 09.30

Novotel Luxembourg Kirchberg Hotel

6, Rue Du Fort Niedergruenewald, Kirchberg, 2015 Luxembourg,

Ending: Thursday, 26 November 2015 at 15.00

Bech Building: Ampere

Kirchberg, Luxembourg



Changes in the current BoP BPM6-based Vademecum[(]

Item 2 on the agenda



3

Executive Summary

The purpose of this document is to present the outline of the new Handbook on the exchange of balance of payments, international investment position, international trade in services, foreign direct investment and the international reserve template statistics, which merges and replaces Eurostat’s Balance of Payments Vademecum and ECB’s Booklet on the exchange of balance of payments, international investment position and the international reserve template within the ESCB.


1. Background

The Handbook on the exchange of balance of payments, international investment position, international trade in services, foreign direct investment and the international reserve template statistics will merge and replace Eurostat’s Balance of Payments Vademecum and ECB’s Booklet on the exchange of balance of payments, international investment position and the international reserve template within the ESCB. It will represent the reference document on data transmissions to both Eurostat and the European Central Bank.

The legal basis for statistical reporting requirements in the field of balance of payments, international investment position, international trade in services, foreign direct investment and international reserves template continues to be:

-  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 (BOP Regulation), as amended by Commission Regulation (EU) No 555/2012 of 22 June 2012 – for data to be reported to Eurostat

-  the ECB Guideline ECB/2011/23 (as amended), as well as the ECB Recommendations ECB/2011/24 (as amended) – for data to be reported to the ECB.

Data on annual international trade in services and foreign direct investment included in the Commission Regulation (EU) No 555/2012 are to be transmitted only to Eurostat, while data on the monthly international reserves template, monthly revaluations of reserve assets and monthly cross-border shipments of euro banknotes included in ECB Guideline ECB/2011/23 are to be transmitted only to ECB.

For monthly BOP, quarterly BOP and quarterly IIP requirements in the Commission Regulation (EU) No 555/2012 and in ECB Guideline ECB/2011/23 are identical and the same datasets should be transmitted to both Eurostat and the ECB. The questionnaires with requested observations are also identical for both institutions. The Handbook will maintain both nomenclatures for the identification of the requirements and the questionnaire format employed by Eurostat will be now accompanied by the list format used by the ECB. For example for monthly balance of payments request title of the dataset will be MBOP, MCHVL, MCHPR, MOTHC, MBOP_V/T1. Different, less detailed mandatory requirements for non-Euro Area countries will continue to be distinguished in series keys/data questionnaires.

Merger of the two documents intends to provide the single reference to the national compilers in National Central Banks and National Statistical Institutes. Contents of the Handbook will combine the information that was previously available in the Booklet and Vademecum. It aims to eliminate previous duplications and possible inconsistencies between two documents and will not introduce any new parts which were not included in either Booklet or Vademecum.

The Handbook on data exchange provides updated information on all aspects related to the transmission of monthly and quarterly balance of payments and quarterly international investment position statistics to the ECB and Eurostat. It also covers the transmission aspects related to the reporting of annual international trade in services and remittances as well as the annual direct investment transactions, income and positions to Eurostat. Furthermore, it provides details on all aspects of the transmission of international reserves template data within the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) and provides information on the delivery of data related to the monthly reporting of banknote shipments to the ECB.

The draft structure of the Handbook is presented in chapter 2.

2. Proposed table of contents of the Handbook

1. Introduction

2. List of changes

3. List of contacts at the ECB and Eurostat

4. Data transmission timetable and revision policy

5. The data structures

5.1 Background

5.2 The DSD for b.o.p./i.i.p. and international reserves

5.3 The DSD for Foreign Direct Investment (Eurostat)

5.4 The DSD for banknotes’ shipments

6. Transmission of data and metadata

6.1 Transmission of data

6.2 Transmission of metadata

6.2.1. Transmission of metadata information using BOP DSD attributes

6.2.2. Single major events and significant revisions

7. Reporting guidelines

7.1 Sign convention for data transmission

7.2 Data transmissions following an “updates and revisions” approach

7.3 International standards concept versus community concept data

7.4 Bilateral data

7.5 Compliance

7.6 Confidentiality

8. Data quality controls

8.1 Overview

8.2 Validation checks

8.2.1. Internal consistency (integrity rules for data transmission)

8.2.2. Revisions’ analysis

8.2.3 Plausibility checks (time series analysis)

8.2.4 External consistency

8.2.5. Other (less regular) checks

9. BPM6 data flows and reporting lists

9.1 General overview

9.2 Detailed lists

9.2.1. BPM6_BOP_M

9.2.2. BPM6_BOP_Q

9.2.3. BPM6_RA_M

9.2.4 BPM6_CPIS_Q

9.2.5 BPM6_ITS_A

9.2.6 BPM6_FDI_A

9.2.7. ECB_BOP_BNT

10. EU/Euro area data specificities and methodological conventions

10.1 Specificities and conventions

10.1.1 Geographical breakdown of “merchanting”

10.1.2. Services not allocated

10.1.3 Portfolio investment

10.1.4 Functional classification of transactions/positions in investment funds shares

10.1.5 Recording of money market funds' deposit/loans liabilities

10.1.6 Maturity breakdown of the transfer of reserve assets to the ECB

10.1.7 SDR allocations – counterpart area

10.1.8 Valuation of unquoted equity

10.1.9 Allocation of the compound effect

10.1.10 Net external debt

10.1.11 Debtor/creditor approach

10.1.12 Acquisition/disposal of assets from/to residents

10.2 Participation in the ESM capital

10.3 Enlargement of the euro area

10.3.1 Exchange rate

10.3.2 Geographical detail

10.3.3 The particular treatment of reserve assets

10.4 Enlargement of the EU

11. Series keys/data questionnaires

Monthly b.o.p. requirements (BPM6_BOP_M dataflow)

MBOP, MBOP_V; Monthly b.o.p. – questionnaire T1

MCHVL, MCHPR, MOTHC; Monthly “other flows”

Quarterly b.o.p./i.i.p. requirements (BPM6_BOP_Q dataflow)

QBOP, QBOP_V; Quarterly b.o.p. - questionnaire T2.1

QIIP, QIIP_V; Quarterly i.i.p. S.17 - questionnaire T2.2

QCHVL, QCHPR, QOTHC; Quarterly “other flows” - questionnaire T2.2

SEFER; IMF template on “Securities Held as Foreign Exchange Reserves”

Monthly template on international reserves (BPM6_RA_M data flow)

RASS; Monthly template on international reserve and foreign currency liquidity

Monthly banknote shipments (ECB_BOP_BNT data flow)

SHIP; Monthly banknote shipments

Back data requirements

MBOP_B; Monthly b.o.p.

QBOP_B; Quarterly b.o.p.

QIIP_B; Quarterly i.i.p.

Annual ITSS requirements (BPM6_ITS_A dataflow)

Annual International Trade in Services and Remittances - questionnaire T3

Annual FDI requirements (BPM6_FDI_A dataflow)

Annual Direct Investment Transactions - questionnaire T4.1

Annual Direct Investment Income - questionnaire T4.2

Annual Direct Investment Transactions and Income with geographical and activity breakdown - questionnaire T4.3

Annual Direct Investment Positions - questionnaire T5.1

Annual Direct Investment Positions with geographical and activity breakdown - questionnaire T5.2

Euro area aggregates (from the ECB to the NCBs – tentative lists)

MBOP_I8; Monthly b.o.p. of the euro area

QBOP_I8; Quarterly b.o.p. of the euro area

QIIP_I8; Quarterly i.i.p. of the euro area

QCHVL_I8; Quarterly changes due to exchange rate changes of the euro area

QCHPR_I8; Quarterly changes due to price changes of the euro area

QOTHC_I8; Quarterly changes other volume changes of the euro area

RASS_I8; Monthly template on international reserves of the euro area

SHIP_I8; Monthly banknote shipments of the euro area

National data (from the ECB to the NCBs – tentative lists)

MBOP_N: National monthly b.o.p

QBOP_N: National quarterly b.o.p

QIIP_N: National quarterly i.i.p.

12. Annexes

12.1 Reference area requirements for b.o.p./i.i.p.

12.2 Contents of country codes

12.3 BOP geographical zones

12.4 BOP economic zones

12.5 Levels of geographical breakdown/Geographical requirements for b.o.p./i.i.p.

12.6 Offshore centres

12.7 Levels of sector breakdown

12.8 Levels of activity breakdown

12.9 List of international organisations

12.10 Units of measurements

12.11 Integrity rules for data transmission

12.12 Examples of SDMX-EDI (GESMES/TS) and SDMX-ML messages

3. Data transmission timetable

Table 1 covers data for monthly and quarterly BOP, quarterly IIP with revaluations, annual ITSS and remittances, annual FDI transactions, income and positions, monthly template on international reserves, monthly banknote shipments and semi-annual SEFER. It differentiates between data to be transmitted to both Eurostat and ECB, only to Eurostat and only to ECB. Any transmissions of data before the agreed deadlines are very much appreciated.

Table 1: Timetable and revision policy

Deadline / Data flow / Dataset/ questionnaire / Reference period / Revised/back
data (1) / Publication (press release) /
23 December 2015 - Wednesday / BPM6_BOP_Q;
BPM6_BOP_M / QBOP, QIIP, QCHVL, QCHPR, QOTHC, QBOP_V, QIIP_V/T2.1, T2.2 / 2015Q3 / 2014Q1 –2015Q2; 2014M1 -2015M9(2) / 13 January 2016 - Wednesday
4 January 2016 - Monday / ECB_BOP_BNT / SHIP / 2015M11 / 11 January 2016 – Monday
8 January 2016 – Friday / BPM6_CPIS_Q / SEFER / 2015Q2
11 January 2016 – Monday / BPM6_RA_M / RASS / 2015M11 / 29 January 2016 – Friday
13 January 2016 - Wednesday / BPM6_BOP_M / MBOP, MCHVL, MCHPR, MOTHC, MBOP_V/T1 / 2015M11 / 2015M10 / 19 January 2016 – Tuesday ECB)/ 20 January 2016 – Wednesday (Eurostat)
4 February 2016 – Thursday / ECB_BOP_BNT / SHIP / 2015M12 / 11 February 2016 – Thursday
10 February 2016 - Wednesday / BPM6_RA_M / RASS / 2015M12 / 29 February 2016 - Monday
12 February 2016 – Friday / BPM6_BOP_M / MBOP, MCHVL, MCHPR, MOTHC, MBOP_V/T1 / 2015M12 / 2015 M10-M11 / 18 February 2016 – Thursday
7 March 2016 - Monday / ECB_BOP_BNT / SHIP / 2016M1 / 14 March 2016 – Monday
10 March 2016 – Thursday / BPM6_RA_M / RASS / 2016M1 / 31 March 2016 – Thursday
15 March 2016 – Tuesday / BPM6_BOP_M / MBOP, MCHVL, MCHPR, MOTHC, MBOP_V/T1 / 2016M1 / 2015 M10-M12 / 21 March 2016 - Monday
24 March 2016 – Thursday / BPM6_BOP_Q;
BPM6_BOP_M / QBOP, QIIP, QCHVL, QCHPR, QOTHC, QBOP_V, QIIP_V/T2.1, T2.2 / 2015Q4 / 2012Q1-2015Q3; 2012M1-2015M12(2) / 7 April 2016 – Thursday
4 April 2016 – Monday / ECB_BOP_BNT / SHIP / 2016M2 / 11 April 2016 – Monday
11 April 2016 – Monday / BPM6_RA_M / RASS / 2016M2 / 29 April 2016 – Friday
13 April 2016 – Wednesday / BPM6_BOP_M / MBOP, MCHVL, MCHPR, MOTHC, MBOP_V/T1 / 2016M2 / 2016M1 / 19 April 2016 – Tuesday
5 May 2016 – Thursday / ECB_BOP_BNT / SHIP / 2016M3 / 12 May 2016 – Thursday
10 May 2016 – Tuesday / BPM6_RA_M / RASS / 2016M3 / 31 May 2016 – Tuesday
13 May 2016 – Friday / BPM6_BOP_M / MBOP, MCHVL, MCHPR, MOTHC, MBOP_V/T1 / 2016M3 / 2016M1-M2 / 20 May 2016 - Friday
3 June 2016 – Friday / ECB_BOP_BNT / SHIP / 2016M4 / 10 June 2016 – Friday
10 June 2016 – Friday / BPM6_RA_M / RASS / 2016M4 / 30 June 2016 – Thursday
13 June 2016 – Monday / BPM6_BOP_M / MBOP, MCHVL, MCHPR, MOTHC, MBOP_V/T1 / 2016M4 / 2016M1-M3 / 17 June 2016 - Friday
24 June 2016 – Friday / BPM6_BOP_Q;
BPM6_BOP_M / QBOP, QIIP, QCHVL, QCHPR, QOTHC, QBOP_V, QIIP_V/T2.1, T2.2 / 2016Q1 / 2015Q1-2015Q4; 2015M1-2016M3(2) / 8 July 2016 – Friday
4 July 2016 – Monday / ECB_BOP_BNT / SHIP / 2016M5 / 11 July 2016 – Monday
8 July 2016 – Friday / BPM6_CPIS_Q / SEFER / 2015Q4
11 July 2016 - Monday / BPM6_RA_M / RASS / 2016M5 / 29 July 2016 – Friday
14 July 2016 – Thursday / BPM6_BOP_M / MBOP, MCHVL, MCHPR, MOTHC, MBOP_V/T1 / 2016M5 / 2016M4 / 20 July 2016 - Wednesday
4 August 2016 - Thursday / ECB_BOP_BNT / SHIP / 2016M6 / 11 August 2016 – Thursday
10 August – Wednesday / BPM6_RA_M / RASS / 2016M6 / 31 August 2016 – Wednesday
12 August 2016 – Friday / BPM6_BOP_M / MBOP, MCHVL, MCHPR, MOTHC, MBOP_V/T1 / 2016M6 / 2016M4-M5 / 18 August 2016 – Thursday (ECB)/19 August 2016 – Friday (Eurostat)
5 September 2016 – Monday / ECB_BOP_BNT / SHIP / 2016M7 / 12 September 2016 – Monday
9 September 2016 – Friday / BPM6_RA_M / RASS / 2016M7 / 30 September 2016 – Friday
13 September 2016 – Tuesday / BPM6_BOP_M / MBOP, MCHVL, MCHPR, MOTHC, MBOP_V/T1 / 2016M7 / 2016M4-M6 / 19 September 2016 - Monday
23 September 2016 – Friday / BPM6_BOP_Q;
BPM6_BOP_M / QBOP, QIIP, QCHVL, QCHPR, QOTHC, QBOP_V, QIIP_V/T2.1, T2.2 / 2016Q2 / 2013Q1-2016Q1; 2013M1-2016M6(2) / 7 October 2016 - Friday
30 September 2016 – Friday / BMP6_ITS_A / T3 / 2015 / 2012-2014
30 September 2016 – Friday / BPM6_FDI_A / T4.1, T4.2 / 2015 / 2014
30 September 2016 – Friday / BPM6_FDI_A / T4.3 / 2014
30 September 2016 – Friday / BPM6_FDI_A / T5.1 / 2015 / 2014
30 September 2016 – Friday / BPM6_FDI_A / T5.2 / 2014
5 October 2016 – Wednesday / ECB_BOP_BNT / SHIP / 2016M8 / 12 October 2016 - Wednesday
10 October 2016 – Monday / BPM6_RA_M / RASS / 2016M8 / 31 October 2016 – Monday
14 October 2016 – Friday / BPM6_BOP_M / MBOP, MCHVL, MCHPR, MOTHC, MBOP_V/T1 / 2016M8 / 2016M7 / 20 October 2016 – Thursday
4 November 2016 – Friday / ECB_BOP_BNT / SHIP / 2016M9 / 11 November 2016 - Friday
10 November 2016 – Thursday / BPM6_RA_M / RASS / 2016M9 / 30 November 2016 - Wednesday
14 November 2016 – Monday / BPM6_BOP_M / MBOP, MCHVL, MCHPR, MOTHC, MBOP_V/T1 / 2016M9 / 2016M7-M8 / 18 November 2016 - Friday
5 December 2016 – Monday / ECB_BOP_BNT / SHIP / 2016M10 / 12 December 2016 – Monday
9 December 2016 - Friday / BPM6_RA_M / RASS / 2016M10 / 30 December 2016 – Friday
14 December 2016 – Wednesday / BPM6_BOP_M / MBOP, MCHVL, MCHPR, MOTHC, MBOP_V/T1 / 2016M10 / 2016M7-M9 / 20 December 2016 - Tuesday
23 December 2016 – Friday / BPM6_BOP_Q;
BPM6_BOP_M / QBOP, QIIP, QCHVL, QCHPR, QOTHC, QBOP_V, QIIP_V/T2.1, T2.2 / 2016Q3 / 2015Q1-2016Q2; 2015M1-2016M9(2) / 13 January 2017 - Friday
6 January 2017 – Friday / BPM6_CPIS_Q / SEFER / 2016Q2
10 January 2017 – Tuesday / BPM6_RA_M / RASS / 2016M11 / 31 January 2017 – Tuesday
13 January 2017 – Friday / BPM6_BOP_M / MBOP, MCHVL, MCHPR, MOTHC, MBOP_V/T1 / 2016M11 / 2016M10 / 19 January 2017 - Thursday
10 February 2017 - Friday / BPM6_RA_M / RASS / 2016M12 / 28 February 2017 – Tuesday
13 February 2017 – Monday / BPM6_BOP_M / MBOP, MCHVL, MCHPR, MOTHC, MBOP_V/T1 / 2016M12 / 2016M10-M11 / 17 February 2017 - Friday
10 March 2017 – February - Friday / BPM6_RA_M / RASS / 2017M1 / 31 March 2017 – Friday
16 March 2017 – Thursday / BPM6_BOP_M / MBOP, MCHVL, MCHPR, MOTHC, MBOP_V/T1 / 2017M1 / 2016M10-M12 / 22 March 2017 – Wednesday
27 March 2017 - Monday / BPM6_BOP_Q;
BPM6_BOP_M / QBOP, QIIP, QCHVL, QCHPR, QOTHC, QBOP_V, QIIP_V/T2.1, T2.2 / 2016Q4 / 2013Q1-2016Q3;
2013M1-2016M12(2) / 10 April 2017 - Monday

(1) Member States can send other revisions or back data, in case of any revisions in national figures.