Consistency between balance of payments and national accounts

Purpose of the work

With the introduction of the 6th edition of the Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual (BPM6) and the European System of Accounts 2010 (ESA2010), the methodological standards for compiling European Balance of Payments (BOP) and National Accounts (NA) have become aligned. According to BPM6 (§1.6) and ESA2010 (§18.05), both frameworks concord on how to record transactions between an economy and the rest of the world, implying that BOP data (based on BPM6) and NA data (based on ESA2010) should, in theory, be consistent.

In practice, however, discrepancies still arise. These can be traced to:

• Limited coordination of revision policies across responsible institutions,

• Divergent data sources,

• Varying compilation methods, and

• Differences in interpreting BPM6 and ESA2010 guidelines.

To address these issues, Eurostat and ECB Statistics began measuring the actual level of consistency between BOP and NA in September 2015. This initiative aims to identify and resolve the root causes of inconsistencies, ultimately improving the accuracy and reliability of European economic data. PLease find below the most recent publication. 

• 2025 Joint ECB-Eurostat annual report on the consistency of National Accounts and Balance of Payments concerning quarterly financial and non-financial accounts [link]