New Zealand - Current Account Balance

For New Zealand, the Balance of Payments current account summarises international trade in goods and services, and investment income and transfers with the rest of the world. A deficit in the current account shows that expenses were greater than earnings for a given period. A deficit must be balanced by a net inflow of investment from the rest of the world.

Active:

• Framework: IMF BPM6
• Measurement: Millions of New Zealand dollars (Mil. NZD)
• Adjustments:
  • Trend
  • Seasonally adjusted (SA)
  • Not seasonally adjusted (NSA)
• Native frequency: Quarterly
• Start dates: 1971Q2, 1996Q2, 1997Q1, 2000Q2

Predecessor:

• BPM5 - 1993Q1 to 2014Q1 ("_B5")

The balance of payments is made up of:

• Current account - records transactions in goods, services, income and current transfers.
• Capital account - covers all transactions that involve the receipt or payment of capital transfers and the acquisition or disposal of non-produced, non-financial assets.
• Financial account - royalties and government services involving a country’s claims on (assets), and liabilities to, the rest of the world. Both sides can have net increases (positive flows).
• Direct investment - The direct investment threshold applied is 10 percent or more of the equity ownership in an enterprise at the individual investor level for both direct investment in New Zealand and New Zealand direct investment overseas.
• Portfolio investment -  Portfolio investment comprises transactions in debt securities (bonds and notes, and money market instruments) and equities that are not classified as either direct investment or reserves. 
• Other investment - The main sources used to collect data on other investment are the QIIS and the Quarterly Managed Funds Survey. The QIIS collects data on both assets and liabilities, while the Managed Funds Survey collects only assets data. The stock and flow of other investment assets and liabilities data are available by sector. 
• Reserve assets -  Reserve assets comprise the financial claims on non-residents that are available to the RBNZ and the New Zealand Treasury. The principal holder of New Zealand’s reserves is the RBNZ. The data, which relate to transactions in reserve assets as opposed to changes in holdings, are obtained from RBNZ records.
• External Debt - External Debt is the value of all debt owed by residents of New Zealand to non-residents.

Essential principles guiding the compilation of New Zealand's balance of payments statistics are:

1. balance of payments statistics include transactions between residents of New Zealand and residents of other countries.
2. transactions are recorded at the time ownership changes, or, in the case of services, when the service is performed.
3. transactions are recorded at their market value. Foreign currency transactions are converted to their New Zealand dollar equivalent.

BPM6 is the International Monetary Fund’s Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual, Sixth Edition (BPM6). It is the current international standard adopted by New Zealand in the compilation of balance of payments and international investment statistics.

Further reading

At IMF:

• No entry