The income balance records financial flows stemming from transactions (receipts and payments) between residents and non-residents related to income from labour, direct investment, portfolio investment and other investment (loans and deposits).
Moreover, under the new methodology based on the 6th edition of the IMF Balance of Payments Manual, the primary income balance also includes flows between general government and the rest of the world (mainly the EU) that relate to taxes and subsidies on products and production (part of the former “current transfers”).
Statistical data on all categories of income, other than from bonds, are reported to the Bank of Greece through the DIREQT system as well as by the resident monetary financial institutions intermediating in the settlement of such transactions. Also, the Central Securities Depository provides data on non-residents’ transactions (purchases and sales) in shares traded on the Athens Exchange.
Since 2003, interest income from bonds under Portfolio Investment Income is calculated not on a cash basis, but on an accruals basis (for more information, see Press release – Balance of payments – APRIL 2005).
Since 2003, Direct Investment Income also records reinvested direct investment earnings, estimated on the basis of data collected by the Bank of Greece directly from firms operating in Greece within a direct investment relationship.