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Data Revisions to the Flow of Funds Accounts

June 27, 2017
Bank of Japan
Research and Statistics Department

The Bank of Japan retroactively revises data for the Flow of Funds Accounts (FFA) once every year to reflect updated information on source data, institutional changes, etc. In the June 2017 revision, data from the first quarter of 2005 onward have been updated and are now available at "BOJ Time-Series Data Search."

Highlights of the revision are as follows:

(i) Trade credits and foreign trade credits

Previously, the FFA recorded trade credits and foreign trade credits based on the Financial Statements Statistics of Corporations by Industry, etc. and the residuals -- derived from the difference between total assets and liabilities across sectors -- were listed as liabilities of the households sector. Following this revision, trade credits and foreign trade credits for sole proprietorships are estimated directly from relevant source data, and other debts and credits brought on by public works, etc. are newly recorded in the FFA, while the residuals are posted as liabilities of private nonfinancial corporations. As a result of this new methodology, substantial revisions were made to the amount outstanding on the liabilities side, leading to an upward revision to the private nonfinancial corporations and general government sectors on the one hand, and a downward revision to the households sector on the other.

(ii) Households borrowings from private financial institutions

Data for housing loans and consumer credit by individuals are revised respectively to keep them accurate and this is done so through a series of measure including the wider use of existing source data. Regarding borrowings by sole proprietorships, estimates constructed using the previous methodology -- which imputes future figures from past benchmarks -- were prone to fall short in accuracy with the passage of time. For this reason, we have revised the estimation method using a variety of sources (i.e., The Small and Medium Enterprise Agency's Basic Survey on Small and Medium Enterprises). As a result of this methodology change, the amount outstanding of households borrowings from private financial institutions has been revised downward.

(iii) Central government securities and FILP bonds

The estimation method of government securities was revised in the latest periodical revision of L-broadly-defined liquidity in the Money Stock Statistics (MSS). To be consistent with this MSS revision, estimates of central government securities and FILP bonds in the FFA were also revised using the same methodology. In addition, the estimation method -- to convert from a face-value basis to a market-value basis -- of the FFA's government securities has been revised. As a result, the amount outstanding of central government securities and FILP held by the private nonfinancial corporations and local governments sectors was revised upward, while that held by the households and private nonprofit institutions serving households sectors was revised downward.

Inquiries:

Financial Statistics Group, Economic Statistics Division, Research and Statistics Department

E-mail: post.rsd5@boj.or.jp