Mexico - Current Account Balance

Quarterly balance of payments for Mexico, in U.S. dollars: exports of goods and services, imports of goods and services, net income receipts, net receipts from current transfers, and the capital account (liabilities and assets) broken down into: external indebtedness, foreign direct investment, portfolio investment, and changes in international reserves. Quarterly from 2006.

• Main aspects of transactions coverage:
  • (a) Goods: All goods that transit through national customs are included. Goods that cross the border for processing and re-export to their country of origin (in-bond industry) are included in the statistics in accordance with the recommendation of the IMF Balance of Payments Manual.
  • (b) Banking Sector: Coverage of this sector is total, as the figures are provided by the Bank of Mexico's banking statistics department, which receives balance data monthly from all banks.
  • (c) International Reserves: The balance of payments of Mexico records the change in the reserves in accordance with their definition in the Law of the Bank of Mexico. This definition establishes that the balance of Net International Reserves (official designation) is calculated by deducting from gross international reserves (external assets of the Bank of Mexico) the Bank of Mexico's foreign-currency-denominated liabilities to the federal government and to other government entities with a maturity under six months, as well as liabilities in the form of reciprocal lines of credit (cuentas convenio) and some short-term arrangements.

• Goods: The data are obtained directly from customs documents.
• Services:
  • (a) Transportation: For international air travel, the data are obtained from the reports of national airlines (credit) and the survey used to measure travelers (debit). Other transportation categories are obtained from data provided by airlines, shipping and rail companies, and the country's port and airport authorities. Debits recorded in freight (goods) are obtained from customs data.
  • (b) Travel: Debit and credit data are obtained by combining the data from immigration authorities on the number of entries into and exits from the country (Mexicans and foreigners) with the survey conducted by the Bank of Mexico to estimate the average expenditure per traveler.
  • (c) Communications: The data are obtained from the country's telephone companies and the Ministry of Communications and Transport.
  • (d) Insurance: Includes revenue and expenditure relating to international reinsurance operations. The data are provided by the National Insurance and Guarantees Commission.
  • (e) Government services, n.i.e.: Income includes expenditures of foreign diplomatic missions accredited in Mexico and is estimated on the basis of the expenditures and number of employees in the U.S. mission, and then extrapolated on the basis of the total number of diplomatic personnel in the country, which is known. Debit entries include the expenditures of Mexican diplomatic missions abroad obtained from the Ministry of Foreign Relations and expenditure on tourism promotion abroad provided by the Tourism Ministry.
• Income:
  • (a) Direct investment income: The data are obtained from a survey of enterprises with foreign direct investment (including reinvested earnings).
  • (b) Other investment income: The figures on public sector interest are obtained from the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit. For the banking sector, interest is estimated by applying international market interest rates plus a surcharge to balances of foreign assets and liabilities shown in the banking statistics produced by the Bank of Mexico. The same procedure is used for the nonbank private sector, for which the relevant asset balances are obtained from the liabilities of residents of other economies with Mexico reported by foreign banks to the BIS, and the relevant liability balances are obtained from the assets of residents of other economies with Mexico (the compilation procedure is described in Other Investment below).
• Transfers: The most important heading is family remittances, which consist of resources sent by Mexicans residing in the United States to their families in Mexico. The data are mainly obtained from companies that specialize in the transfer of such funds. Other headings in transfers are grants and pensions, for which the data are obtained from international organizations, private foundations, and the embassy of the United States.
• Direct investment:The data included in the balance of payments in a timely fashion are obtained from a quarterly survey of a sample of the largest companies; these data are compared with and/or supplemented by the official figures of the National Register of Foreign Investment, which includes only new investment flows. The final data, which are subsequently incorporated in revised versions of the balance of payments, come from an annual survey conducted by the Bank of Mexico and the Ministry of Economy, in which all companies with foreign investment report more detailed accounting data.
• Portfolio investment: This heading can be divided into three categories:
• (a) Shares of Mexican companies listed on the Mexican Stock Exchange bought and/or sold by nonresidents. For this, the data are obtained from the National Banking and Securities Commission. The data cover American Depository Receipts (ADRs), investment in Mexico via funds listed on foreign markets, and transactions by individual investors. Shares are valued at the average price of the day of the transaction.
• (b) Securities issued by Mexicans and placed on foreign markets. For public sector securities, the data source is the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit. For bank securities, the data contained in the banking statistics of the Bank of Mexico are used; these data indicate balances of securities held by nonresidents. The data for nonbank private sector securities are obtained from specialized news services that continuously monitor placements of Mexican securities on international markets.
• (c) Securities in pesos issued and placed domestically but purchased by nonresidents. The data are obtained from the Bank of Mexico's operations department, which makes such placements. However, as these primary data do not distinguish between holdings of residents and nonresidents, the department conducts a survey of financial intermediaries to identify the nationality (Mexico or foreign) of the holders.
• Other investment:
  • (a) Assets: Cover foreign loans and deposits. In the case of the assets of Mexican banks, flows recorded are obtained from the changes in the balances reported in the above-mentioned banking statistics. For the nonbank sector, the value of its deposits abroad is obtained from the table "External positions of reporting banks vis-à-vis individual countries, Liabilities" published by the BIS in its bulletin International Banking and Financial Markets Development.
  • (b) Liabilities: This heading covers foreign loans, and deposits, as appropriate, corresponding to the public, private nonbank and banking sectors and the Bank of Mexico. The public sector data are produced by the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit. The banking sector data are taken from the banking statistics. Data for the Bank of Mexico are obtained from the Bank of Mexico's accounting department. There are two data sources for the nonbank private sector: (1) a survey of foreign creditor banks to identify financing that they provided to Mexican private companies, and (2) a survey of the largest companies in the country, mainly to identify the key characteristics of their external liabilities (term and maturity schedule, rates and spreads, etc.) but in which data on supplier credit are also obtained.
• International reserve assets: The coverage of reserve assets corresponds to the Bank of Mexico's official definition of "Net International Reserves."

Data is subjected to revisions.

Banco de México switched from framework BPM5 (1960 to 2016) to BPM6 (from 2006) in May 2017.