Problems and challenges experienced by European institutions in the balance of payments compilation process

Abstrakt

The continuous internationalization of economic activity raises demand for the balance of payments statistics – a concise summary of the country’s economic relations with the rest of the world. At the same time, the increasing complexity of business operations impedes the ability to obtain high-quality data that reliably reflects the actual volume of cross-border flows. The study aims to identify the main methodological challenges experienced by the European reporting institutions (primarily central banks) in the process of the balance of payments compilation. The most problematic balance of payments components were identified through the analysis of the metadata responses provided individually by 41 European compilers, gathered on the standardized forms prepared by the International Monetary Fund. Despite the large methodological diversity, it was possible to distinguish two universal dimensions of methodological difficulties – the inaccessibility of data related to specific areas and the inability to compile it in full accordance with the IMF’s guidelines.