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Release of the Historical Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Data Rearranged Based on BPM6

April 8, 2014
Ministry of Finance
Bank of Japan

On March 10, 2014, the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Japan started with the release of new balance of payments related statistics conforming with the sixth edition of the Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual (BPM6) and at the same time released historical time series data consistent with the new statistics (referred to as "rearranged data" hereafter). Revised rearranged data were released today with the release of the revised Balance of Payments (BOP) data for the October-December quarter of 2013; further revisions of rearranged data are scheduled with the revision of seasonally adjusted data and the release of the International Investment Position of Japan (IIP) at year-end 2013.

The data are available at: Historical Data Rearranged Based on the BPM6. In addition, the BOJ Time-Series Data Search (under Balance of Payments [BP]) provides linked time-series of the rearranged data for January 1996 to December 2013 and the new balance of payments related statistics from January 2014 onward. Items for which such linked series are available are listed below, with the parentheses showing the series codes:

  • Current account (BP'BPBP6JYNCB)
  • Goods and services (BP'BPBP6JYNTS)
  • Goods (BP'BPBP6JYNTB)
  • Exports (BP'BPBP6JYNEX)
  • Imports (BP'BPBP6JYNIM)
  • Services (BP'BPBP6JYNSN)
  • Primary income (BP'BPBP6JYNPIN)
  • Secondary income (BP'BPBP6JYNSIN)
  • Capital account (BP'BPBP6JYNCAN)
  • Financial account (BP'BPBP6JYNFB)
  • Direct investment (BP'BPBP6JYNFB1)
  • Portfolio investment (BP'BPBP6JYNFB2)
  • Financial derivatives (other than reserves) (BP'BPBP6JYNFB5)
  • Other investment (BP'BPBP6JYNFB3)
  • Reserve assets (BP'BPBP6JYNFA4)
  • Net errors and omissions (BP'BPBP6JYNER)

I. Overview

The following provides an overview of the rearranged data.

A. Period

  • BOP: from January 1996 through December 2013.
  • IIP: from year-end 1996 through year-end 2013 (however, as of April 2014, only figures up to year-end 2012 have been released).

B. Data Series

  • BOP: the original and seasonally adjusted data series; details for portfolio investment assets/liabilities and breakdowns such as by region and by industry are excluded.
  • IIP: year-end positions; quarterly data and breakdowns such as by region, by currency, and by industry are excluded.

C. Rearrangement Methods

Rearranged data were originally compiled and disseminated on the basis of the fifth edition of the Balance of Payments Manual (BPM5) through 2013, but were rearranged in accordance with the standards of the new statistics based on BPM6, and also reflect the revision of the time of recording reinvested earnings. Refer to Details [ZIP 24KB] for further information.

II. Notes on Usage

As stated above, the rearranged data are compiled from the source data originally collected under the BPM5 framework that have been then rearranged to make them consistent with the BPM6-based statistics. Therefore, items for which source data were not collected under the BPM5 framework are not covered in the rearranged data.

Listed below are the major items not covered and major changes in recording principles and compilation methods not reflected in the rearranged data.

A. Changes in Classification of Institutional Sectors for the Financial Account

Rearranged data for the financial account are classified into only three sectors as in the BPM5-based statistics due to the lack of source data for the more detailed classification under BPM6.

B. Sub-Items

"-" denotes sub-items for which source data are not available. Examples of such sub-items include the following:

  1. (1) "Other primary income" under "Primary income": for the entire period;
  2. (2) "Insurance and pension reserves" under "Other investment": for the entire period;
  3. (3) "Net exports of goods under merchanting (credit)" under "Goods": from 1996 through 2004; and
  4. (4) "Research and development services" under "Other services": from 1996 through 2004.

C. Changes in Definition and Coverage

Changes in definition and coverage are not fully reflected if source data are not available. The same applies when the name of an item has changed but source data are not available. That is, although the rearranged data reflect changes in item names, changes in definition and coverage are not always reflected due to the lack of source data. Examples include the following:

  1. (1) introduction of financial intermediation services indirectly measured (FISIM) and financial dealers' margins;
  2. (2) supplementing data for "other services";
  3. (3) change in the definition of direct investment; and
  4. (4) reclassification of transactions and positions related to investment fund shares to "equity and investment fund shares" or "investment income attributable to investment fund shareholders."

D. Change in the Treatment of Securities Lending Transactions

Securities lending transactions are treated as sales of securities, as in the BPM5-based statistics.

Inquiries

Balance of Payments Statistics Group, Balance of Payments Division, International Department

E-mail : boj-bop@boj.or.jp