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 the methodology and practices applied by Member States for the compilation of balance of payments and international investment position statistics, thereby also improving the transparency of the external statistics of the euro area. In addition to revised individual country chapters, this version includes some changes to the methodological part (Chapters 2 and 3). Following the enlargement of the European Union on 1 May 2004, country chapters now cover the 25 EU Member States, as well as Bulgaria and Romania. The publication of the corresponding Manual for the Accession Countries is therefore discontinued.

The B.o.p. Book is available on the ECB’s web site (http://www.ecb.europa.eu). Copies of the B.o.p. Book in hard copy format are available from the ECB, at the following address: