OREANDA-NEWS. The National Bank of Ukraine has begun publishing the balance of payments and external debt statistics in accordance with the new methodological framework set out in the sixth edition of the IMF's Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual (hereinafter - BPM6). Hitherto, the external sector statistics were compiled in accordance with the methodology set out in the fifth edition of the IMF's Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual (hereinafter - BPM5).

The BPM6 was released by the International Monetary Fund (hereinafter - the IMF) at the beginning of 2009[1]. The methodological changes were prompted by the need to take into account developments in globalization, financial and technological innovations and the growing interest in examining external vulnerability using balance sheet data. In addition, the BPM6 was revised in parallel with the update of the System of National Accounts (the new edition was released in 2008) by the United Nations Statistical Commission in order to achieve full harmonization of different branches of macroeconomic statistics.

“Some countries, including Australia, India, Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Chile, Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, have already begun publishing balance of payments (b.o.p.) data based on the BPM6 methodology. All EU countries are set to introduce the BPM6 in 2014. The IMF started publishing data presented on the basis of the BPM6 with the August 2012 releases of the International Financial Statistics (IFS) and the online Balance of Payments Statistics (BOPS) Database,” Acting Director of the General Economic Department of the National Bank of Ukraine Olena Kovalenko said.

In 2009, Ukraine embarked on the preparation for the changeover to the new methodology. Changes have been made to the report forms; existing calculation techniques have been streamlined and new calculation techniques have been introduced; data under certain items have been reclassified. Conceptually, the BPM6 maintains the overall framework of the methodology of the previous BPM5. However, under the BPM6, some items have been renamed and the presentation has been modified. The BPM6 has also introduced changes to the treatment of certain items.

The improved methodology for compiling the balance of payments statistics makes it possible to achieve a more complete integration of data with other branches of macroeconomic statistics. “The National Bank of Ukraine has paid much attention to bringing statistics closer to the international standards, in particular, by focusing its efforts on the changeover to the new methodology for compiling the external sector statistics. Ukraine keeps up with the times and it is worth mentioning that we will implement the transition to the new standards together with other EU countries. The new methodology for compiling the balance of payments statistics will foster greater transparency of the data on Ukraine for external users," said Ms Olena Kovalenko.

The “Balance of Payments” section of the official website of the National Bank of Ukraine contains the following information:

quarterly balance of payments data covering the period 2005 - 2012 (standard and analytic presentation);

quarterly merchandise trade data covering the period 2005 - 2012;

methodological notes on Ukraine's external sector statistics;

overview of the major methodological changes in the compilation of the external sector statistics.

International Investment Position (IIP) data covering the period 2010 - 2012 presented on a BPM6 basis are available in the “International Investment Position” section.

The “External Debt” section provides the following information:

Quarterly External Debt Statistics covering the period 2008 - 2012 presented on a BPM6 basis;

methodological notes on the external debt statistics.

Quarterly external sector data for 2013 in line with the BPM6 methodology will be published at the end of March 2014. Throughout 2014, quarterly external sector data will be presented in 2 methodological formats: BPM5 and BPM6. Starting from 2015, data will be presented on a BPM6 basis.