The dataset contains the balance of payments (b.o.p.) and the international investment position (i.i.p.) of the euro area compiled by the ECB, as well as European union aggregates compiled by Eurostat and individual EU country data. The b.o.p. is a statistical statement that summarises, for a specific period of time, the economic transactions of an economy with the rest of the world. The different accounts within the b.o.p. are distinguished according to the nature of the economic resources (e.g. goods, services, income or financial resources) provided and received. The i.i.p. is a statistical statement that shows, at a specific point in time, the value and composition of financial assets of residents of an economy that are claims on non-residents and gold bullion held as reserve assets and liabilities of residents of an economy to non-residents; The current account and capital account main components are broken down by counterpart countries. Financial transactions and positions are presented by type of investment, resident and counterpart sector, type of instrument and country of residency of the counterpart
Detailed documentation on b.o.p/i.i.p. can be found on the ECB website
Monthly and quarterly b.o.p and quarterly i.i.p.
For information about the naming convention (series key dimensions and metadata), refer to the BP6 underlying DSD (BOP1_15) maintained by the IMF.
Non-adjusted as well as seasonally and working day adjusted
Data sent to and disseminated by the ECB have to respect a set of validation rules: (i) time consistency (monthly data summed up should be equal to data reported on a quarterly basis); (ii) geographical breakdown: i.e. intra and extra euro area transactions should sum up to transactions vis-à-vis rest of the world; (iii) reference sector: total economy should be consistent with the sum of the subsectors (S121, S12T, S13, S1P); iv) counterpart sector: follows the same intuition as the reference sector type; v) stock/flow reconciliation: stocks, transactions and other flows are interlinked: stock in period t is equal to stock in period t-1 plus transactions in period t plus other flows in period t; vi) accounting item: i.e. balance should be equal to credit minus debit etc.; vii) international accounts item: i.e. current account is equal to the sum of its components (goods, services, primary and secondary income); viii) functional category: total (financial account) is equal to direct, portfolio, other investment, financial derivatives and reserve assets. ix) maturity classification: i.e. long term and short term add up to all original maturities; and x) currency classification: i.e. for debt securities the currency breakdown of debt securities adds up to the total;
Revisions to national data and euro area aggregates follow a pre-defined practice. Quarterly data are more extensively revised when data for the second and fourth quarters are first published; monthly data are kept consistent with quarterly data, hence revised in line with the availability/review of quarterly data.
BP6 - Balance of Payments and International Investment Position (BPM6)
National Central Banks and/or National Statistics Offices, ECB and Eurostat
European Central Bank
The monthly data are published around 7 weeks after the end of the reference month, whereas the quarterly data are published 3 months after the reference quarter (see the ECB publication calendar )
ECB Statistical release calendar: https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/calendars/statscal/html/index.en.html
Monthly Bulletin, ECB website, Press Releases
National b.o.p. and i.i.p. statistics are collected in the context of Guideline ECB/2011/23 of 9 December 2011 (as amended)
Download the series catalogue containing a full list of series and associated metadata of the dataset BP6 in CSV format (zipped)