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1. Concepts, Sources and Methods

The conceptual framework used in the compilation of Australia’s balance of payments (BOP) and international investment position (IIP) statistics is based on the Fifth Edition of the International Monetary Fund’s Balance of Payments Manual (BPM5, 1993). This framework is summarised in the 1998 edition of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) publication Balance of Payments and International Investment Position, Australia: Concepts, Sources and Methods (cat. no. 5331.0). This publication is available on the ABS web site, under the category ‘Statistical Concepts Library’.

2. Sign Convention

In keeping with BOP conventions, credit items (such as income credits) are shown without sign and debit items (such as income debits) are shown as negative entries. International investment position statistics follow the BOP sign convention. For foreign liabilities, position data and any transaction, increases in liabilities are shown without sign. A negative sign for transactions in liabilities denotes a fall in liabilities. For foreign assets, position data and any transaction, increases in assets are shown with a negative sign. Transactions in assets shown without sign denote a decrease in assets.

3. Total Debt Levels

Total debt levels shown for foreign investment in Australia (table 2) and Australian investment abroad (table 5) are recorded on a gross basis for liabilities and assets.

4. Data availability

The ABS normally uses international airline passenger card information processed by the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA) to produce estimates of overseas arrivals and departures (OADs) by residents and non-residents and estimates of compensation of employees by partner country which are included in tables 3 and 6. However, for the financial year 2000-01, the distribution of employee income by partner country has been allocated based on earlier patterns. This method has been used due to a continuing delay in the processing, by DIMIA, of the passenger cards. The distribution of data by country for all other financial years has been made based on the pattern of overseas arrivals and departures obtained from the passenger cards.

5. Care to be exercised

Care should be exercised in interpreting country data. In the first instance, source data often do not identify the country of the non-resident transactor. Care should also be exercised whenever either the residual country groupings designated ‘not elsewhere specified’ (n.e.s.) or when the designated ‘unallocated’ category are significant for the table. Not elsewhere specified (n.e.s.) categories include: data for those countries in the region that are not separately identified in the tables; and data that are reported for the region as a whole but which cannot be allocated by country.


Symbols and Other Usages