Balance of Payments Statistics–a Building Block for National Accounts

The national accounts and balance of payments are conceptually consistent in terms of internationally coordinated sets of rules. These are currently the System of National Accounts 2008 for the national accounts, and the Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual 2009 for the balance of payments. In keeping with these guidelines (which, in the case of the national accounts, are fleshed out further in the European System of Accounts 2010 for the European Union), the Federal Statistical Office and the Deutsche Bundesbank cooperate closely in producing their results based on mutually supplied data. These concern imports and exports, which are made up of cross-border flows of goods and services. In an open economy, what is known as the external balance (that is to say, exports less imports) is needed to calculate gross domestic product (GDP), the key indicator of an economy’s growth. Similarly, gross national income is likewise an important variable for the national accounts, and can only be computed by cooperating with the Bundesbank in the field of the balance of payments. Gross national income is obtained from gross domestic product by adding primary incomes received by resident units from the rest of the world and subtracting primary incomes paid to the rest of the world. To obtain gross national disposable income from gross national income, secondary incomes received from the rest of the world (taxes, social contributions and benefits, and other transfers) are added and secondary incomes paid to the rest of the world are deducted. Balance of payments statistics provided by the Bundesbank are important inputs for these cross-border transactions as well.