External sector

Balance of Payments

The German Balance of Payments systematically summarizes, for a specific time period, the economic transactions of Germany with the rest of the world.

 

Dissemination Practice for the German Balance of Payments

Note: Recent revisions to Statistical Supplement 3 Balance of payments, September 2011

The stocks recorded in the international investment position for the years 2007 to 2010 are being revised in September. In this context, corrections also need to be made to the financial account in the balance of payments for the 2010 reporting year. In the area of direct investment, late reports were included for the September reporting month, while the category of other investment was supplemented by adding deposits of German non-banks with foreign banks owing to more recent results from secondary sources for the fourth quarter of 2010.

In addition to the above-mentioned corrections, revisions were also made to the balance of payments for the current 2011 reporting year.

• For the January 2011 reporting month, late reports for direct investment and other investment were included.
• Data on goods for processing are now available sooner and can therefore be included as part of the revisions to the previous month.  For the period from January to June 2011, the corresponding figures have already been incorporated into the current account as part of the ongoing revision. As the revision is a shift between general merchandise and goods for processing, the current account balance is not affected. There were corresponding entries in short-term loans arising from claims for exporting goods to inward processing or liabilities for importing goods to outward processing.

The monthly press release (currently in German only) is released on the internet about 6 weeks after the reference period. The actual release date is announced on Friday of the preceding week in the advance release calendar.

The Federal Statistical Office publishes the Foreign Trade together with major items of the Current Account. Therefore data is made available to the Federal Statistical Office as well as to the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology shortly before the Balance of Payments press release by the Bundesbank.

Under tables additional data is made available from the Statistical Supplement 3 Balance of Payments Statistics combined with the comprehensive time-series database service .

Additionally, Direct Investment Flows between Germany and abroad by country, groups of countries, and industries are released on an annual basis.

In addition to the reports and articles, the Monthly report contains an extensive statistical section, beginning with a summary of key economic data  for Germany.

More detailed statistical information for Germany is provided in the Statistical Supplement 3 Balance of Payments Statistics.

The annual publication Balance of Payments by Region released in July, provides for a detailed geographical breakdown.

Another Special Statistical Publication is available for the Balance of Payments Technological Services (currently in German only).

The revision policy and publication dates for the Balance of Payments and the IIP statistics are based on the availability of the data and on users' interests.

Seasonally adjusted data on balance of payments statistics

In addition to unadjusted data, seasonally adjusted figures as well as figures only adjusted for working day variations are offered. Adjusted figures are estimated using the Census X-12-ARIMA method, version 0.2.8. For details relating to the seasonal adjustment procedure see:

• The changeover from the seasonal adjustment method Census X-11 to Census X-12-ARIMA. Monthly Report, September 1999

 

Methodological Notes

The German Balance of Payments complies conceptually, methodologically and in its presentation with the fifth edition of the IMF’s Balance of Payments Manual ( BPM5).

The IMF Report on Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSC) summarizes to what extent countries observe certain internationally recognized standards.

As SDDS-Indicator, the IMF's Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board (DSBB) contains metadata on the methodological, conceptional and institutional framework of the German Balance of Payments.

Further methodological information are available from the European Union Balance of Payments / International Investment Position Statistical Methods (BOP Book) where Balance of Payments and IIP methods and compilation practices for all EU-countries are explained. An update is released annually in May.

Details on methodological adjustments over time are described in the following essays of the Bundesbank’s Monthly report:

Selected essays of Bundesbank's Monthly reports

• Changes in the methodology of the balance of payments, Article from the Monthly Report, March 1995
  (Changes in the scheme and layout of the balance of payments as a result of revised international requirements)
• German balance of payments in 1998, Article from the Monthly Report, March 1999
  (Further adjustments to the revised IMF guidelines)
• German balance of payments in 2002, Article from the Monthly Report, March 2003
  (The recording of foreign travel in the balance of payments statistics in 2001)
• German balance of payments in 2004, Article from the Monthly Report, March 2005
  (Recording cross-border cash transactions in the balance of payments; Changeover to the accruals principle of accounting for interest income)
• German balance of payments in 2007 Article from the Monthly Report, March 2008
  (Certificates and warrants in the balance of payments)

All essays of Bundesbank’s Monthly reports are to be found here

Further Bundesbank's essays relating to the balance of payments

• The German remittance market – an overview (November 2007)
• Transfer of technology in Germany’s external transactions – structure and tendencies in the field of patents, research and development during the period 1990 to 2009 (May 2011, German only)

A description of the various cross-border economic transactions in Balance of Payments statistics is available in Special Statistical Publication 7 ("Erläuterungen zum Leistungsverzeichnis für die Zahlungsbilanz", available only in German).

The applicable legal bases for the data collections (Foreign Trade and Payments Act, Foreign Trade and Payments Regulation) can be found in the area of external reporting.