Belgium - Current Account Balance




Belgium: Current Account Balance

Mnemonic TAB.IBEL
Unit Mil. EUR, NSA
Adjustments Not Seasonally Adjusted
Monthly 67.86 %
Data Dec 2019 -503
Nov 2019 -1,565

Series Information

Source National Bank of Belgium - Belgostat (BNB)
Release Balance of Payments
Frequency Quarterly (October)
Start Date 1/31/1995
End Date 12/31/2019

Belgium: Trade

Reference Last Previous Units Frequency
Balance of Goods Jan 2020 711 722.8 Mil. EUR, NSA Monthly
Exports of Goods Jan 2020 33,041 30,148 Mil. EUR, NSA Monthly
Imports of Goods Jan 2020 32,330 29,425 Mil. EUR, NSA Monthly
Current Account Balance Dec 2019 -503 -1,565 Mil. EUR, NSA Monthly
Exports of Goods and Services 2019 Q4 97,074 96,402 Mil. EUR, CDASA Quarterly
Imports of Goods and Services 2019 Q4 96,616 96,252 Mil. EUR, CDASA Quarterly
Net Exports 2019 Q4 458 150 Mil. EUR, CDASA Quarterly
Real Exports of Goods and Services 2019 Q4 93,217 92,670 Mil. Ch. 2015 EUR, CDASA Quarterly
Real Imports of Goods and Services 2019 Q4 92,840 92,047 Mil. Ch. 2015 EUR, CDASA Quarterly

Release Information

Description

For Belgium, detailed balance of payments per IMF BPM5 and bPM6. Quarterly under BPM6 from 2008, under BPM5 from 1995 to 2014.

Methodology

Sources used for this release include NBB who had responsibility for publishing balance of payments (BOP) data for Belgium since 2002.

The major source for compiling balance of payments is the international transactions reporting system (ITRS). The responsibility for reporting rests with residents and applies to payments made within and outside the domestic banking system.

In addition to the above procedures, some major enterprises report all their transactions directly to NBB.

Foreign trade statistics are used for compiling transactions in goods since September 2001.

An annual survey of foreign direct investment, since 1996, is used to improve the corresponding items in the BOP.

The main balance of payments items:

  1. Current account
    • Trade in Services
    • Current transfers
  2. Capital accounts
  3. Financial accounts
    • Portfolio investments
    • Direct investments
    • Other investments and derivatives
  4. Reserves

Revisions

Data prior to entry into EMU (prior to 1999) have been converted from the former national currency using the appropriate irrevocable conversion rate. The presentation facilitates comparisons within a country over time and ensures the historical evolution (i.e. growth rates) is preserved. However, pre-EMU euro are a notional unit and are not normally suitable to form area aggregates or to carry out cross-country comparisons.

In January 2006, the Bank switched to a new system of collecting data needed to create the balance of payments.  This totally changed the reporting of the balance of payment data.  The series have been running in parallel to one another to avoid disruptions. 

Further reading