European Union balance of payments/ international investment position statistical methods

A revised version of the annual publication "European Union balance of payments/international investment position statistical methods" ("B.o.p. book") is released today.

It documents on the statistical methodologies applied in Member States for compiling balance of payments and international investment position statistics and, as such, improves the transparency of the compilation of euro area statistics.

The B.o.p. book was first published by the European Monetary Institute (EMI) on 31 January 1998, was updated by the European Central Bank (ECB) in August 1998 and subsequently every year in November. In addition to revised individual country chapters, this version includes some amendments to the general chapters (Chapters 2 and 3).

The book is primarily intended for use by central banks, statistical institutes and international organisations.

The B.o.p. book is available on the ECB's web site [pdf 2.27 MB]. Copies of the B.o.p. book in hard copy format are available from the ECB, at the following address: