Netherlands - Current Account Balance

For the Netherlands, the quarterly balance of payments statistics show the value of the economic transactions between Dutch residents and nonresidents.

Active:

• Framework: IMF BPM6
• Measurement: Millions of euros (MIl. EUR)
• Adjustment: Not seasonally adjusted (NSA)
• Native frequency: Quarterly
• Start date: Uniformly 2003Q2

Predecessor:

• BPM5 - 1982Q1 to 2014Q1 ("_B5")

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).

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.

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.

Moody's Analytics supplements

We back-extend the current account balance to 1982Q1.

We construct seasonally adjusted counterparts for the current account credit, debit and balance.

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.

Further reading

At IMF (SDDS):

• Balance of payments (Jan 2023)

• 28 Jun 2023, Phillip Thorne