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Balance of payments

This section provides data on balance of payments (b.o.p.) statistics. The euro area b.o.p. is compiled by the ECB. The recent monthly figures should be regarded as provisional. Data are revised when figures for the following month and/or the detailed quarterly b.o.p. are published. Earlier data are revised periodically or as a result of methodological changes in the compilation of the source data. The monetary presentation of the b.o.p. provides a link between the foreign transactions of parties other than banks in the euro area and the money supply in the euro area.

Data
Background

Data

Statistical Data Warehouse - Interactive data access

Get the latest available data presented in the format of the Monthly Bulletin tables.
Summary balance of payments
Current and capital accounts, including geographical breakdown
Monetary presentation of the balance of payments
Financial account and international investment position, including geographical breakdown
All b.o.p. time series

Currency breakdown of exports and imports of selected EU countries: pdf 100 kB, en.

Background

The seasonal adjustment of euro area goods and services: direct versus indirect approach en
Methodological changes (as of November 2009): en.
Methodological information concerning data presented in this section: 80 kB, en.
Methodological information concerning the monthly seasonal adjustment of euro area balance of payments statistics: en (last update: 20 August 2009).
Methodological information concerning monetary presentation of the balance of payments: 41 kB, en.
Methodological information concerning the estimation of quarterly balance of payments current account data for the euro area since 1980: en (last update: 20 August 2009).

The concepts and definitions used in balance of payments (b.o.p.) and international investment position (i.i.p.) statistics are generally in line with the IMF Balance of Payments Manual (fifth edition, October 1993), the ECB Guideline of 16 July 2004 on the statistical reporting requirements of the ECB (ECB/2004/15) and the amending ECB Guideline of 31 May 2007 (ECB/2007/3). Additional references about the methodologies and sources used in the euro area b.o.p. and i.i.p. statistics can be found in the ECB publication entitled “European Union balance of payments/international investment position statistical methods”: 2.91 MB en (last update: 13 June 2007).

Data for the current account are seasonally adjusted. Where appropriate, the adjustment covers also working-day, leap year and/or Easter effects.

Monetary presentation of the b.o.p. transactions mirrors the transactions in the external counterpart of M3. The data follow the sign conventions of the b.o.p. explained in methodological notes, except for the transactions in the external counterpart of M3 taken from money and banking statistics, where a positive sign denotes an increase of assets or a decrease of liabilities. In the liabilities of portfolio investment, the b.o.p. transactions include sales and purchases of equity and debt securities issued by MFIs, apart from shares of money market funds and debt securities issued by MFIs with a maturity of up to two years.