The Balance of Payments (BOP) systematically summarizes all economic transactions between the residents and the non-residents of a country or of an economic area during a given period.
The Balance of payments provides harmonized information on international transactions which are part of the current account (goods, services, primary and secondary income), as well as on transactions which fall in the capital and the financial account. International investment position presents value of financial assets owned outside the economy and indebtedness of the economy to the rest of the world.
BOP is an important macro-economic indicator used to assess the position of an economy (of credit or debit for current and capital acount, net acquisition of financial assets or net incurrence of liabilities for BOP financial account and international investment position) towards the external world. Out of BOP data, some indicators on international position of the EU and Member States are derived. Indicators on Main Balance of Payments and International Investment Position items as share of GDP are presented as percentage of GDP for given year or quarter and moving average for 3 consecutive years for:
balance, credit and debit flows of current and capital accounts and of main current account items: goods, services, primary and secondary income,
net flows, net acquisition of financial assets and net incurrence of liabilities for total financial account and foreign direct investment,
international investment position and net external debt at the end of reference quarter or year.
Indicators on export market shares present shares of each EU Member State in total world exports of goods and services for given year, and 1-year and 5-year percentage changes of these shares, as well as shares in OECD exports and 5-year percentage changes of these shares.
