Netherlands - Current Account Balance

The balance of payments statistics show the value of the economic transactions between Dutch residents and nonresidents.

The presentation of the balance of payments is in line with the international guidelines contained in the sixth edition of the IMF Balance of Payments Manual (BPM6).

Definitions:

• Current Account: the goods and services, primary income, and secondary income accounts.
• Capital Account: credit and debit entries for non-produce, nonfinancial assets and capital transfers.
  • Capital transfers: comprise the transfer of ownership of assets (other than cash or inventories), debt forgiveness, inheritances and legacies.
• Financial account: records transactions involving financial assets and liabilities. Classified according to the instrument and functional categories: direct investment, portfolio investment, financial derivatives and employee stock options, other investment and reserve assets.
• Net lending/net borrowing: derived from the current and capital account. In principle, equals net lending/net borrowing based on the financial account. However, as a consequence of the use of multiple source data in the system of accounts, discrepancies occur. These discrepancies are shown as ‘errors and omissions’.
• SFIs: Special Financial Institutions (SFIs) are resident Dutch enterprises or institutions, fully owned by foreign direct investors that act as financial intermediary between other parts of the group to which they belong. The financial assets and liabilities of these institutions usually are related to direct investment via the Netherlands in third countries or are connected to the channeling of funds collected in the direction of the foreign investor. Due to the magnitude of their financial transactions, the figures of SFIs, where relevant, are shown as ‘of which’ items. The contribution of SFIs to the current account should not be directly related to the economic relevance of SFIs in the Netherlands. For instance, SFI figures in the balance of payments also include primary income flows from Dutch subsidiaries (non-SFI), channeled in the direction of the foreign direct investor. Consequently, the impact of SFIs on the Dutch current account cannot directly be derived from the figures.

Net transactions within the financial account are calculated as the difference between transactions in assets and liabilities. Errors and omissions are calculated as the difference between net lending/net borrowing from the financial account and net lending/net borrowing from the current and capital account.

Data are revised quarterly, as necessary. Final data appear two years and three months after the reporting period.

Rounding may result in slight difference between reported totals and calculated sums.

Throughout the dataset, an increase in financial assets and liabilities is shown with a positive sign; a decrease is shown with a negative sign. This sign convention is applicable as from the introduction of BPM6 and implies a change compared with BPM5 for the registration of transactions in financial assets. The sign convention in the current and capital account did not change.