Balance of Payments
The Balance of Payments is a statistical table that records transactions between residents and non-residents, irrespective of the transaction currency, during a specified time period.
The notions of ‘resident’ and ‘non-resident’ are based on the definitions set out by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the latest (5th) edition of its manual for the balance of payments, and used for statistical purposes only.
Since 1999, the Bank of Greece has adjusted its methodology for compiling the Greek Balance of Payments to the recommendations and definitions of the IMF – Balance of Payments Manual (5th edition, 1993), which also establishes an obligation for each country to compile and report data on its International Investment Position.
Today, the data collection mechanism the Bank of Greece uses for compiling the Balance of Payments is based on a ‘mixed system, within which the basic source of Balance of Payments data is the resident Monetary Financial Institutions (including the Bank of Greece), which are obligated to provide the Bank of Greece with monthly detailed information on all transactions between Greek residents and non-residents that they carry out either on their own behalf or on behalf of their customers.
It should be noted that as of 1 July 2002 the Bank of Greece has set the amount of €12,500 as a threshold below which Balance of Payments transactions may not be reported by Monetary Financial Institutions. The above threshold has been increased to €50.000 as from 1 January 2010.
The other source of statistical data for the Balance of Payments is the information provided directly by certain resident transactors (such as e.g. the Greek oil refineries), resident and non-resident travellers, the State General Accounting Office, and residents that conduct cross-border transactions settled without the intermediation of resident monetary financial institutions.
A detailed presentation of the methodology and sources that the EU countries use for compiling their Balance of Payments and International Investment Position is included in the ECB’s publication ‘European Union balance of payments/international Investment position statistical methods’, May 2007.
The Bank of Greece disseminates Balance of Payments data in its following publications:
(i) Monthly Press Release: Provisional Balance of Payments Data with Summary Report”
(ii) SDDS data (monthly)
(iii) Bulletin of Conjunctural Indicators (monthly)
(iv) Economic Bulletin (semi-annual)
(v) Monetary Policy – Interim Report (semi-annual)
(vi) Governor’s Annual Report (annual).