Balance of payments and international investment position quality report

Banque de France implements the monitoring criteria for the quality of Balance of Payments statistics in compliance with the coordinated European approach.

The statistics of Balance of Payments compiled by Banque de France provide the reference data for assessing the external equilibria of the French economy. The external balance means the ability to fulfill the financial commitments vis-à-vis investors abroad and the ability to obtain from the international financial market the funding supporting the economic growth.

The statistics of balance of payments supports the compilation of the European scoreboard underlying the Macroeconomic Imbalances Procedure

The Banque de France supports the international initiatives promoting the assessment of the quality of Balance of Payments statistics, owing to the high value of these statistics for the assessment of the National economy as well as for the cross-countries comparisons. In this respect Banque de France commits to comply with the more advanced standards in this domain, particularly the Data Quality Assessment Framework defined by the International Monetary Fund and the roadmap of the Committee for Monetary, Financial and Balance of Payments Statistics – CMFB .

The CMFB puts together the Central Banks, the Statistical Institutes, the European Central Bank and Eurostat with the purpose of providing recommendations and advice the European Commission on monetary, financial and balance of payments statistics.

According to the roadmap endorsed by the CMFB in June 2014, aiming at harmonizing the quality reports on the balance of payments and international investment position, the Banque de France discloses its Quality Assessment according to theDocument defining the principles for data collection and dissemination of balance of payments statistics, in accordance to this common European framework.

In the area of statistics, quality is defined, notably, from the criteria of independence of the statistical function, the reliability of data collections and estimates, the dissemination framework for data and methods. Three topics are therefore addressed accordingly: the institutional and legal framework, the data collection and the dissemination.

The legal foundation is provided by article L141-1 of the monetary and financial code, reinforced by articles 130 of the Treaty on the Monetary Union and article 7 of the Statutes of the ESCB and the ECB, which warrant the independence of Banque de France in the performance of its tasks. Moreover article L141-6 of the Monetary and Financial Code confers to Banque de France the exclusive responsibility of compiling the balance of payments of France.

The data collection process complies with the 6th Manual of balance of payments published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The statistics are disseminated by Banque de France – via the annual report on the balance of payments and via the Webstat Portal for the download of data.

Banque de France provides also these sets of data to the relevant international and European organizations – notably the European Central Bank and Eurostat - . These data contribute to the compilation of the balance of payments of the Euro area and of the European Union.

The whole quality report can be consulted via this link :