Aggregationmethod: Gap-filled total

Developmentrelevance:
The balance of payments records an economy’s transactions with the rest of the world. Balance of payments accounts are divided into two groups: the current account, which records transactions in goods, services, primary income, and secondary income, and the capital and financial account, which records capital transfers, acquisition or disposal of nonproduced, nonfinancial assets, and transactions in financial assets and liabilities. The current account balance is one of the most analytically useful indicators of an external imbalance.

A primary purpose of the balance of payments accounts is to indicate the need to adjust an external imbalance. Where to draw the line for analytical purposes requires a judgment concerning the imbalance that best indicates the need for adjustment. There are a number of definitions in common use for this and related analytical purposes. The trade balance is the difference between exports and imports of goods. From an analytical view it is arbitrary to distinguish goods from services. For example, a unit of foreign exchange earned by a freight company strengthens the balance of payments to the same extent as the foreign exchange earned by a goods exporter. Even so, the trade balance is useful because it is often the most timely indicator of trends in the current account balance. Customs authorities are typically able to provide data on trade in goods long before data on trade in services are available.

IndicatorName: Imports of goods and services (BoP, current US$)

Limitationsandexceptions: Discrepancies may arise in the balance of payments because there is no single source for balance of payments data and therefore no way to ensure that the data are fully consistent. Sources include customs data, monetary accounts of the banking system, external debt records, information provided by enterprises, surveys to estimate service transactions, and foreign exchange records. Differences in collection methods - such as in timing, definitions of residence and ownership, and the exchange rate used to value transactions - contribute to net errors and omissions. In addition, smuggling and other illegal or quasi-legal transactions may be unrecorded or misrecorded.

Longdefinition: Imports of goods and services comprise all transactions between residents of a country and the rest of the world involving a change of ownership from nonresidents to residents of general merchandise, nonmonetary gold, and services. Data are in current U.S. dollars.

Statisticalconceptandmethodology:
The balance of payments (BoP) is a double-entry accounting system that shows all flows of goods and services into and out of an economy; all transfers that are the counterpart of real resources or financial claims provided to or by the rest of the world without a quid pro quo, such as donations and grants; and all changes in residents' claims on and liabilities to nonresidents that arise from economic transactions. All transactions are recorded twice - once as a credit and once as a debit. In principle the net balance should be zero, but in practice the accounts often do not balance, requiring inclusion of a balancing item, net errors and omissions.

The concepts and definitions underlying the data are based on the sixth edition of the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Balance of Payments Manual (BPM6). Balance of payments data for 2005 onward will be presented in accord with the BPM6. The historical BPM5 data series will end with data for 2008, which can be accessed through the World Development Indicators archives.

The complete balance of payments methodology can be accessed through the International Monetary Fund website (www.imf.org/external/np/sta/bop/bop.htm).


Aggregationmethod: Weighted average

Generalcomments: Note: Data are based on the sixth edition of the IMF's Balance of Payments Manual (BPM6) and are only available from 2005 onwards.

IndicatorName: Insurance and financial services (% of service imports, BoP)

License_Type: CC BY-4.0

Longdefinition: Insurance and financial services cover various types of insurance provided to nonresidents by resident insurance enterprises and vice versa, and financial intermediary and auxiliary services (except those of insurance enterprises and pension funds) exchanged between residents and nonresidents.

Periodicity: Annual

Source: International Monetary Fund, Balance of Payments Statistics Yearbook and data files.

Topic: Economic Policy & Debt: Balance of payments: Current account: Goods, services & income


IndicatorName: Goods imports (BoP, current US$)

Longdefinition: Goods imports refer to all movable goods (including nonmonetary gold) involved in a change of ownership from nonresidents to residents. Data are in current U.S. dollars.


Generalcomments: Note: Data are based on the sixth edition of the IMF's Balance of Payments Manual (BPM6) and are only available from 2005 onwards. Manufacturing services on physical inputs owned by others (goods for processing in BPM5) and maintenance and repair services n.i.e. are reclassified from goods to services.

IndicatorName: Service imports (BoP, current US$)

Longdefinition: Services refer to economic output of intangible commodities that may be produced, transferred, and consumed at the same time. Data are in current U.S. dollars.


Aggregationmethod: Sum

IndicatorName: Charges for the use of intellectual property, payments (BoP, current US$)

Longdefinition: Charges for the use of intellectual property are payments and receipts between residents and nonresidents for the authorized use of proprietary rights (such as patents, trademarks, copyrights, industrial processes and designs including trade secrets, and franchises) and for the use, through licensing agreements, of produced originals or prototypes (such as copyrights on books and manuscripts, computer software, cinematographic works, and sound recordings) and related rights (such as for live performances and television, cable, or satellite broadcast). Data are in current U.S. dollars.


IndicatorName: Imports of goods, services and primary income (BoP, current US$)

Longdefinition: Imports of goods, services and primary income is the sum of goods imports, service imports and primary income payments. Data are in current U.S. dollars.


IndicatorName: Transport services (% of service imports, BoP)

Longdefinition: Transport covers all transport services (sea, air, land, internal waterway, pipeline, space and electricity transmission) performed by residents of one economy for those of another and involving the carriage of passengers, the movement of goods (freight), rental of carriers with crew, and related support and auxiliary services. Also included are postal and courier services. Excluded are freight insurance (included in insurance services); goods procured in ports by nonresident carriers (included in goods); maintenance and repairs on transport equipment (included in maintenance and repair services n.i.e.); and repairs of railway facilities, harbors, and airfield facilities (included in construction).


IndicatorName: Travel services (% of service imports, BoP)

Longdefinition: Travel covers goods and services acquired from an economy by travelers for their own use during visits of less than one year in that economy for either business or personal purposes. Travel includes local transport (i.e., transport within the economy being visited and provided by a resident of that economy), but excludes international transport (which is included in passenger transport. Travel also excludes goods for resale, which are included in general merchandise.


Developmentrelevance: Private financial flows - equity and debt - account for the bulk of development finance. Equity flows comprise foreign direct investment (FDI) and portfolio equity. Debt flows are financing raised through bond issuance, bank lending, and supplier credits.

Generalcomments: Note: Data starting from 2005 are based on the sixth edition of the IMF's Balance of Payments Manual (BPM6).

IndicatorName: Foreign direct investment, net outflows (BoP, current US$)

Limitationsandexceptions:
FDI data do not give a complete picture of international investment in an economy. Balance of payments data on FDI do not include capital raised locally, an important source of investment financing in some developing countries. In addition, FDI data omit nonequity cross-border transactions such as intra-unit flows of goods and services.

The volume of global private financial flows reported by the World Bank generally differs from that reported by other sources because of differences in sources, classification of economies, and method used to adjust and disaggregate reported information. In addition, particularly for debt financing, differences may also reflect how some installments of the transactions and certain offshore issuances are treated.

Data on equity flows are shown for all countries for which data are available.

Longdefinition: Foreign direct investment refers to direct investment equity flows in an economy. It is the sum of equity capital, reinvestment of earnings, and other capital. Direct investment is a category of cross-border investment associated with a resident in one economy having control or a significant degree of influence on the management of an enterprise that is resident in another economy. Ownership of 10 percent or more of the ordinary shares of voting stock is the criterion for determining the existence of a direct investment relationship. This series shows net outflows of investment from the reporting economy to the rest of the world. Data are in current U.S. dollars.

Source: International Monetary Fund, Balance of Payments database, supplemented by data from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and official national sources.

Statisticalconceptandmethodology:
Data on equity flows are based on balance of payments data reported by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Foreign direct investment (FDI) data are supplemented by the World Bank staff estimates using data from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and official national sources.

The internationally accepted definition of FDI (from the sixth edition of the IMF's Balance of Payments Manual [2009]), includes the following components: equity investment, including investment associated with equity that gives rise to control or influence; investment in indirectly influenced or controlled enterprises; investment in fellow enterprises; debt (except selected debt); and reverse investment. The Framework for Direct Investment Relationships provides criteria for determining whether cross-border ownership results in a direct investment relationship, based on control and influence. Distinguished from other kinds of international investment, FDI is made to establish a lasting interest in or effective management control over an enterprise in another country. A lasting interest in an investment enterprise typically involves establishing warehouses, manufacturing facilities, and other permanent or long-term organizations abroad. Direct investments may take the form of greenfield investment, where the investor starts a new venture in a foreign country by constructing new operational facilities; joint venture, where the investor enters into a partnership agreement with a company abroad to establish a new enterprise; or merger and acquisition, where the investor acquires an existing enterprise abroad. The IMF suggests that investments should account for at least 10 percent of voting stock to be counted as FDI. In practice many countries set a higher threshold. Many countries fail to report reinvested earnings, and the definition of long-term loans differs among countries. BoP refers to Balance of Payments.

Topic: Economic Policy & Debt: Balance of payments: Capital & financial account


IndicatorName: Foreign direct investment, net outflows (% of GDP)

Longdefinition: Foreign direct investment refers to direct investment equity flows in an economy. It is the sum of equity capital, reinvestment of earnings, and other capital. Direct investment is a category of cross-border investment associated with a resident in one economy having control or a significant degree of influence on the management of an enterprise that is resident in another economy. Ownership of 10 percent or more of the ordinary shares of voting stock is the criterion for determining the existence of a direct investment relationship. This series shows net outflows of investment from the reporting economy to the rest of the world, and is divided by GDP.


IndicatorName: Secondary income, other sectors, payments (BoP, current US$)

Longdefinition: Secondary income refers to transfers recorded in the balance of payments whenever an economy provides or receives goods, services, income, or financial items without a quid pro quo. All transfers not considered to be capital are current. Data are in current U.S. dollars.

Topic: Economic Policy & Debt: Balance of payments: Current account: Transfers


Developmentrelevance:
Movement of people, most often through migration, is a significant part of global integration. Migrants contribute to the economies of both their host country and their country of origin. Yet reliable statistics on migration are difficult to collect and are often incomplete, making international comparisons a challenge.

In most developed countries, refugees are admitted for resettlement and are routinely included in population counts by censuses or population registers. Globally, the number of refugees at end 2010 was 10.55 million, including 597,300 people considered by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to be in a refugee-like situation; developing countries hosted 8.5 million refugees, or 80 percent of the global refugee population.

Global migration patterns have become increasingly complex in modern times, involving not just refugees, but also millions of economic migrants. But refugees and migrants, even if they often travel in the same way, are fundamentally different, and for that reason are treated very differently under modern international law. Migrants, especially economic migrants, choose to move in order to improve the future prospects of themselves and their families. Refugees have to move if they are to save their lives or preserve their freedom. They have no protection from their own state - indeed it is often their own government that is threatening to persecute them. If other countries do not let them in, and do not help them once they are in, then they may be condemning them to death - or to an intolerable life in the shadows, without sustenance and without rights.

IndicatorName: Personal remittances, paid (current US$)

Limitationsandexceptions:
Remittance transactions have grown in importance over the past decade. In a number of developing economies, receipts of remittances have become an important and stable source of funds that exceeds receipts from exports of goods and services or from financial inflows on foreign direct investment. But the quality of statistical remittance data is not high. Remittances are a challenge to measure because of their nature. They are heterogeneous with numerous small transactions conducted by individuals through a wide variety of channels: formal channels, such as electronic wire, or through informal channels, such as cash or goods carried across borders. The large number of remittance transactions and the multitude of channels pose challenges to the compilation of comprehensive statistics. The small size of individual transactions means that they often go undetected by typical data source systems, although the aggregate level of transactions may be substantial.

Because of difficulties in obtaining data on informal remittance transactions, the remittance transactions undertaken through informal channels are sometimes not well covered in current balance of payments data. As a result, even though direct measurement of remittances - through transactions reporting or surveys - may be considered preferable if feasible, some countries instead combine different sources and estimation methods to achieve better coverage, by using direct measurements where practical and supplemented estimates where they are not. Model-based approaches are used in some countries as they are flexible. Compilers can design models to fill gaps in data sources or to provide global totals.

However, only reliable input data can lead to sound estimates, regardless of the sophistication of an estimation method or econometric model. Indirect data are converted to remittance estimates using a set of assumptions. These assumptions should be plausible, but it is often not possible to test or verify these assumptions and also the results in practice.

Longdefinition: Personal remittances comprise personal transfers and compensation of employees. Personal transfers consist of all current transfers in cash or in kind made or received by resident households to or from nonresident households. Personal transfers thus include all current transfers between resident and nonresident individuals. Compensation of employees refers to the income of border, seasonal, and other short-term workers who are employed in an economy where they are not resident and of residents employed by nonresident entities. Data are the sum of two items defined in the sixth edition of the IMF's Balance of Payments Manual: personal transfers and compensation of employees. Data are in current U.S. dollars.

Source: World Bank staff estimates based on IMF balance of payments data.

Statisticalconceptandmethodology:
The two main components of personal remittances, "personal transfers" and "compensation of employees", are items in the balance of payments (BPM6) framework. Both of these standard components are recorded in the current account.
"Personal transfers," a new item in the Balance of Payments (BPM6) represents a broader definition of worker remittances. Personal transfers include all current transfers in cash or in kind between resident and nonresident individuals, independent of the source of income of the sender (irrespective of whether the sender receives income from labor, entrepreneurial or property income, social benefits, and any other types of transfers; or disposes assets) and the relationship between the households (irrespective of whether they are related or unrelated individuals).

Compensation of employees refers to the income of border, seasonal, and other short-term workers who are employed in an economy where they are not resident and of residents employed by nonresident entities. Compensation of employees represents remuneration in return for the labor input to the production process contributed by an individual in an employer-employee relationship with the enterprise. Compensation of employees is recorded gross and includes amounts paid by the employee as taxes or for other purposes in the economy where the work is performed. Compensation of employees has three main components: wages and salaries in cash, wages and salaries in kind, and employers' social contributions.


IndicatorName: Current account balance (BoP, current US$)

Longdefinition: Current account balance is the sum of net exports of goods and services, net primary income, and net secondary income. Data are in current U.S. dollars.

Topic: Economic Policy & Debt: Balance of payments: Current account: Balances


IndicatorName: Current account balance (% of GDP)

Longdefinition: Current account balance is the sum of net exports of goods and services, net primary income, and net secondary income.

Source: International Monetary Fund, Balance of Payments Statistics Yearbook and data files, and World Bank and OECD GDP estimates.


Generalcomments: Note: Data are based on the sixth edition of the IMF's Balance of Payments Manual (BPM6) and are only available from 2005 onwards. In BPM6, the headings of the financial account have been changed from credits and debits to net acquisition of financial assets and net incurrence of liabilities; i.e., all changes due to credit and debit entries are recorded on a net basis separately for financial assets and liabilities. Financial account balances are calculated as the change in assets minus the change in liabilities; signs are reversed from previous editions.

IndicatorName: Net financial account (BoP, current US$)

Longdefinition: The net financial account shows net acquisition and disposal of financial assets and liabilities. It measures how net lending to or borrowing from nonresidents is financed, and is conceptually equal to the sum of the balances on the current and capital accounts. Data are in current U.S. dollars.


IndicatorName: Net primary income (BoP, current US$)

Longdefinition: Net primary income refers to receipts and payments of employee compensation paid to nonresident workers and investment income (receipts and payments on direct investment, portfolio investment, other investments, and receipts on reserve assets). Data are in current U.S. dollars.


IndicatorName: Net trade in goods and services (BoP, current US$)

Longdefinition: Net trade in goods and services is derived by offsetting imports of goods and services against exports of goods and services. Exports and imports of goods and services comprise all transactions involving a change of ownership of goods and services between residents of one country and the rest of the world. Data are in current U.S. dollars.


IndicatorName: Net trade in goods (BoP, current US$)

Longdefinition: Net trade in goods is the difference between exports and imports of goods. Trade in services is not included. Data are in current U.S. dollars.


IndicatorName: Net errors and omissions (BoP, current US$)

Longdefinition: Net errors and omissions constitute a residual category needed to ensure that accounts in the balance of payments statement sum to zero. Net errors and omissions are derived as the balance on the financial account minus the balances on the current and capital accounts. Data are in current U.S. dollars.


IndicatorName: Foreign direct investment, net (BoP, current US$)

Longdefinition: Foreign direct investment are the net inflows of investment to acquire a lasting management interest (10 percent or more of voting stock) in an enterprise operating in an economy other than that of the investor. It is the sum of equity capital, reinvestment of earnings, other long-term capital, and short-term capital as shown in the balance of payments. This series shows total net FDI. In BPM6, financial account balances are calculated as the change in assets minus the change in liabilities. Net FDI outflows are assets and net FDI inflows are liabilities. Data are in current U.S. dollars.


IndicatorName: Portfolio Investment, net (BoP, current US$)

Longdefinition: Portfolio investment covers transactions in equity securities and debt securities. Data are in current U.S. dollars.


IndicatorName: Reserves and related items (BoP, current US$)

Longdefinition: Reserves and related items is the net change in a country's holdings of international reserves resulting from transactions on the current, capital, and financial accounts. Reserve assets are those external assets that are readily available to and controlled by monetary authorities for meeting balance of payments financing needs, and include holdings of monetary gold, special drawing rights (SDRs), reserve position in the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and other reserve assets. Also included are net credit and loans from the IMF (excluding reserve position) and total exceptional financing. Data are in current U.S. dollars.


IndicatorName: Net secondary income (BoP, current US$)


IndicatorName: Net capital account (BoP, current US$)

Longdefinition: Net capital account records acquisitions and disposals of nonproduced nonfinancial assets, such as land sold to embassies and sales of leases and licenses, as well as capital transfers, including government debt forgiveness. The use of the term capital account in this context is designed to be consistent with the System of National Accounts, which distinguishes between capital transactions and financial transactions. Data are in current U.S. dollars.


Developmentrelevance:
DAC exists to help its members coordinate their development assistance and to encourage the expansion and improve the effectiveness of the aggregate resources flowing to recipient economies. In this capacity DAC monitors the flow of all financial resources, but its main concern is official development assistance (ODA). Grants or loans to countries and territories on the DAC list of aid recipients have to meet three criteria to be counted as ODA. They are provided by official agencies, including state and local governments, or by their executive agencies. They promote economic development and welfare as the main objective. And they are provided on concessional financial terms (loans must have a grant element of at least 25 percent, calculated at a discount rate of 10 percent). The DAC Statistical Reporting Directives provide the most detailed explanation of this definition and all ODA-related rules.

OECD's IDS database provides a set of readily available basic data that enables analysis on where aid goes, what purposes it serves and what policies it aims to implement, on a comparable basis for all DAC members. The aid data is most commonly used to analyze the sectoral and geographical breakdown of aid for selected years and donors or groups of donors. The data can also be used to target specific policy issues (e.g. tying status of aid) and monitor donors' compliance with various international recommendations in the field of development co-operation.

IndicatorName: Grants, excluding technical cooperation (BoP, current US$)

Limitationsandexceptions:
Data on ODA is for aid-receiving countries. The data cover loans and grants from DAC member countries, multilateral organizations, and non-DAC donors. They do not reflect aid given by recipient countries to other developing countries. As a result, some countries that are net donors (such as Saudi Arabia) are shown as aid recipients. The indicator does not distinguish types of aid (program, project, or food aid; emergency assistance; or post-conflict peacekeeping assistance), which may have different effects on the economy.

Because the indicator relies on information from donors, it is not necessarily consistent with information recorded by recipients in the balance of payments, which often excludes all or some technical assistance - particularly payments to expatriates made directly by the donor. Similarly, grant commodity aid may not always be recorded in trade data or in the balance of payments. Moreover, DAC statistics exclude aid for military and antiterrorism purposes.

The aggregates refer to World Bank classifications of economies and therefore may differ from those of the OECD.

Longdefinition: Grants are defined as legally binding commitments that obligate a specific value of funds available for disbursement for which there is no repayment requirement. Data are in current U.S. dollars.

Source: World Bank, International Debt Statistics, and OECD.

Statisticalconceptandmethodology:
Grants are transfers made in cash, goods or services for which no repayment is required. Data excludes technical cooperation grants. The flows of official and private financial resources from the members of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to developing economies are compiled by DAC, based principally on reporting by DAC members using standard questionnaires issued by the DAC Secretariat. A network of statistical correspondents collects data from aid agencies and government departments (central, state and local) on an ongoing basis. Their task is also to ensure that reporting conforms to the Reporting Directives (definitions and classifications) agreed by the DAC.

The official development assistance (ODA) estimates are published annually at the end of the calendar year in International Development Statistics (IDS) database. Data are in current U.S. dollars.

Topic: Economic Policy & Debt: Balance of payments: Reserves & other items


IndicatorName: Technical cooperation grants (BoP, current US$)

Limitationsandexceptions:
Data on ODA is for aid-receiving countries. The data cover loans and grants from DAC member countries, multilateral organizations, and non-DAC donors. They do not reflect aid given by recipient countries to other developing countries. As a result, some countries that are net donors (such as Saudi Arabia) are shown as aid recipients. The indicator does not distinguish types of aid (program, project, or food aid; emergency assistance; or post-conflict peacekeeping assistance), which may have different effects on the economy.

Because this indicator relies on information from donors, it is not necessarily consistent with information recorded by recipients in the balance of payments, which often excludes all or some technical assistance - particularly payments to expatriates made directly by the donor. Similarly, grant commodity aid may not always be recorded in trade data or in the balance of payments. Moreover, DAC statistics exclude aid for military and antiterrorism purposes.

The aggregates refer to World Bank classifications of economies and therefore may differ from those of the OECD.

Longdefinition: Technical cooperation grants include free-standing technical cooperation grants, which are intended to finance the transfer of technical and managerial skills or of technology for the purpose of building up general national capacity without reference to any specific investment projects; and investment-related technical cooperation grants, which are provided to strengthen the capacity to execute specific investment projects. Data are in current U.S. dollars.

Statisticalconceptandmethodology:
Technical cooperation contributions take the form mainly of the supply of human resources from donors or action directed to human resources (such as training or advice). Also included are aid for promoting development awareness and aid provided to refugees in the donor economy. Assistance specifically to facilitate a capital project is not included. Technical cooperation ncludes both grants to nationals of aid recipient countries receiving education or training at home or abroad and payments to consultants, advisers and similar personnel as well as teachers and administrators serving in recipient countries (including the cost of associated equipment).

The flows of official and private financial resources from the members of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to developing economies are compiled by DAC, based principally on reporting by DAC members using standard questionnaires issued by the DAC Secretariat. A network of statistical correspondents collects data from aid agencies and government departments (central, state and local) on an ongoing basis. Their task is also to ensure that reporting conforms to the Reporting Directives (definitions and classifications) agreed by the DAC.

The official development assistance (ODA) estimates are published annually at the end of the calendar year in International Development Statistics (IDS) database. Data are in current U.S. dollars.


IndicatorName: ICT service exports (BoP, current US$)

Longdefinition: Information and communication technology service exports include computer and communications services (telecommunications and postal and courier services) and information services (computer data and news-related service transactions). Data are in current U.S. dollars.

Topic: Infrastructure: Communications


Developmentrelevance: The balance of payments records an economy's transactions with the rest of the world. Balance of payments accounts are divided into two groups: the current account, which records transactions in goods, services, income, and current transfers, and the capital and financial account, which records capital transfers, acquisition or disposal of non-produced, nonfinancial assets, and transactions in financial assets and liabilities.

IndicatorName: ICT service exports (% of service exports, BoP)

Longdefinition: Information and communication technology service exports include computer and communications services (telecommunications and postal and courier services) and information services (computer data and news-related service transactions).

Statisticalconceptandmethodology:
The balance of payments (BoP) is a double-entry accounting system that shows all flows of goods and services into and out of an economy; all transfers that are the counterpart of real resources or financial claims provided to or by the rest of the world without a quid pro quo, such as donations and grants; and all changes in residents' claims on and liabilities to nonresidents that arise from economic transactions. All transactions are recorded twice - once as a credit and once as a debit. In principle the net balance should be zero, but in practice the accounts often do not balance, requiring inclusion of a balancing item, net errors and omissions.

The concepts and definitions underlying the data are based on the sixth edition of the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Balance of Payments Manual.


IndicatorName: Communications, computer, etc. (% of service exports, BoP)

Longdefinition: Communications, computer, information, and other services cover international telecommunications; computer data; news-related service transactions between residents and nonresidents; construction services; royalties and license fees; miscellaneous business, professional, and technical services; personal, cultural, and recreational services; manufacturing services on physical inputs owned by others; and maintenance and repair services and government services not included elsewhere.


IndicatorName: Primary income receipts (BoP, current US$)

Longdefinition: Primary income receipts refer to employee compensation paid to resident workers working abroad and investment income (receipts on direct investment, portfolio investment, other investments, and receipts on reserve assets). Data are in current U.S. dollars.


IndicatorName: Exports of goods and services (BoP, current US$)

Longdefinition: Exports of goods and services comprise all transactions between residents of a country and the rest of the world involving a change of ownership from residents to nonresidents of general merchandise, net exports of goods under merchanting, nonmonetary gold, and services. Data are in current U.S. dollars.


IndicatorName: Insurance and financial services (% of service exports, BoP)

Longdefinition: Insurance and financial services cover various types of insurance provided to nonresidents by resident insurance enterprises and vice versa, and financial intermediary and auxiliary services (except those of insurance enterprises and pension funds) exchanged between residents and nonresidents.


Generalcomments: Note: Data are based on the sixth edition of the IMF's Balance of Payments Manual (BPM6) and are only available from 2005 onwards. Merchanting is reclassified from services to goods.

IndicatorName: Goods exports (BoP, current US$)

Longdefinition: Goods exports refer to all movable goods (including nonmonetary gold and net exports of goods under merchanting) involved in a change of ownership from residents to nonresidents. Data are in current U.S. dollars.


IndicatorName: Service exports (BoP, current US$)

Longdefinition: Services refer to economic output of intangible commodities that may be produced, transferred, and consumed at the same time. Data are in current U.S. dollars.


IndicatorName: Charges for the use of intellectual property, receipts (BoP, current US$)

Longdefinition: Charges for the use of intellectual property are payments and receipts between residents and nonresidents for the authorized use of proprietary rights (such as patents, trademarks, copyrights, industrial processes and designs including trade secrets, and franchises) and for the use, through licensing agreements, of produced originals or prototypes (such as copyrights on books and manuscripts, computer software, cinematographic works, and sound recordings) and related rights (such as for live performances and television, cable, or satellite broadcast). Data are in current U.S. dollars.


IndicatorName: Exports of goods, services and primary income (BoP, current US$)

Longdefinition: Exports of goods, services and primary income is the sum of goods exports, service exports and primary income receipts. Data are in current U.S. dollars.


IndicatorName: Transport services (% of service exports, BoP)

Longdefinition: Transport covers all transport services (sea, air, land, internal waterway, pipeline, space and electricity transmission) performed by residents of one economy for those of another and involving the carriage of passengers, the movement of goods (freight), rental of carriers with crew, and related support and auxiliary services. Also included are postal and courier services. Excluded are freight insurance (included in insurance services); goods procured in ports by nonresident carriers (included in goods); maintenance and repairs on transport equipment (included in maintenance and repair services n.i.e.); and repairs of railway facilities, harbors, and airfield facilities (included in construction).


IndicatorName: Travel services (% of service exports, BoP)

Longdefinition: Travel covers goods and services acquired from an economy by travelers for their own use during visits of less than one year in that economy for either business or personal purposes. Travel includes local transport (i.e., transport within the economy being visited and provided by a resident of that economy), but excludes international transport (which is included in passenger transport. Travel also excludes goods for resale, which are included in general merchandise.


IndicatorName: Foreign direct investment, net inflows (BoP, current US$)

Longdefinition: Foreign direct investment refers to direct investment equity flows in the reporting economy. It is the sum of equity capital, reinvestment of earnings, and other capital. Direct investment is a category of cross-border investment associated with a resident in one economy having control or a significant degree of influence on the management of an enterprise that is resident in another economy. Ownership of 10 percent or more of the ordinary shares of voting stock is the criterion for determining the existence of a direct investment relationship. Data are in current U.S. dollars.


IndicatorName: Foreign direct investment, net inflows (% of GDP)

Longdefinition: Foreign direct investment are the net inflows of investment to acquire a lasting management interest (10 percent or more of voting stock) in an enterprise operating in an economy other than that of the investor. It is the sum of equity capital, reinvestment of earnings, other long-term capital, and short-term capital as shown in the balance of payments. This series shows net inflows (new investment inflows less disinvestment) in the reporting economy from foreign investors, and is divided by GDP.

Source: International Monetary Fund, International Financial Statistics and Balance of Payments databases, World Bank, International Debt Statistics, and World Bank and OECD GDP estimates.


IndicatorName: Portfolio equity, net inflows (BoP, current US$)

Limitationsandexceptions:
Portfolio investors typically have less of a role in the decision making of the enterprise with potentially important implications for future flows and for the volatility of the price and volume of positions. Portfolio investment differs from other investment in that it provides a direct way to access financial markets, and thus it can provide liquidity and flexibility. It is associated with financial markets and with their specialized service providers, such as exchanges, dealers, and regulators. The nature of financial derivatives as instruments through which risk is traded in its own right in financial markets sets them apart from other types of investment. Whereas other instruments may also have risk transfer elements, these other instruments also provide financial or other resources.

The volume of global private financial flows reported by the World Bank generally differs from that reported by other sources because of differences in sources, classification of economies, and method used to adjust and disaggregate reported information. In addition, particularly for debt financing, differences may also reflect how some installments of the transactions and certain offshore issuances are treated.

Data on equity flows are shown for all countries for which data are available.

Longdefinition: Portfolio equity includes net inflows from equity securities other than those recorded as direct investment and including shares, stocks, depository receipts (American or global), and direct purchases of shares in local stock markets by foreign investors. Data are in current U.S. dollars.

Source: International Monetary Fund, Balance of Payments database, and World Bank, International Debt Statistics.

Statisticalconceptandmethodology:
Data on equity flows are based on balance of payments data reported by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Portfolio equity investment is defined as cross-border transactions and positions involving equity securities, other than those included in direct investment or reserve assets. Equity securities are equity instruments that are negotiable and designed to be traded, usually on organized exchanges or "over the counter." The negotiability of securities facilitates trading, allowing securities to be held by different parties during their lives. Negotiability allows investors to diversify their portfolios and to withdraw their investment readily. Included in portfolio investment are investment fund shares or units (that is, those issued by investment funds) that are evidenced by securities and that are not reserve assets or direct investment. Although they are negotiable instruments, exchange-traded financial derivatives are not included in portfolio investment because they are in their own category.


IndicatorName: Secondary income receipts (BoP, current US$)

Longdefinition: Secondary income refers to transfers recorded in the balance of payments whenever an economy provides or receives goods, services, income, or financial items without a quid pro quo. All transfers not considered to be capital are current. Data are in current U.S. dollars.


IndicatorName: Personal transfers, receipts (BoP, current US$)

Longdefinition: Personal transfers consist of all current transfers in cash or in kind made or received by resident households to or from nonresident households. Personal transfers thus include all current transfers between resident and nonresident individuals. Data are in current U.S. dollars.


IndicatorName: Personal remittances, received (current US$)

Longdefinition: Personal remittances comprise personal transfers and compensation of employees. Personal transfers consist of all current transfers in cash or in kind made or received by resident households to or from nonresident households. Personal transfers thus include all current transfers between resident and nonresident individuals. Compensation of employees refers to the income of border, seasonal, and other short-term workers who are employed in an economy where they are not resident and of residents employed by nonresident entities. Data are the sum of two items defined in the sixth edition of the IMF's Balance of Payments Manual: personal transfers and compensation of employees. Data are in current U.S. dollars.

Othernotes:
Basis and definition: The data on remittance flows are based on officially reported data in the IMF Balance of Payments. Each country reports these data according to the IMF Balance of Payments Manual 6. Each country reports these data according to the IMF Balance of Payments Manual 6. Remittances are defined as the sum of two components: (a) “personal transfers” recorded under the “secondary income” category of the current account; (b) “compensation of employees,” which includes wages, salaries, and other benefits of border, seasonal, and any other nonresident workers (such as local staff of embassies) and which are recorded under the “primary income” category of the current account.

Remittances are known to be underestimated significantly in the balance of payments statistics of the IMF. There are a couple of reasons that officially reported data on remittance might not correctly capture the full extent of money transfer activities. First, the above definition does not include transfers through informal channels—such as hand-carries by friends or family, or in-kind remittances of jewelry, clothes, and other consumer goods, or through hawala. These are believed to be significant portions of total remittances in many countries. If and when they are recorded, it is not clear to what extent they reflect actual transfers rather than imports. Second, in many countries, nonresident deposits, although classified under the capital account, may in part reflect workers’ remittances. For example, the nonresidential rupee deposits in India are most likely remittances disguised as deposits—upon maturity, they do not return to the nonresident depositor because the rupee is not convertible into hard currency.

Caveats: There are several caveats relating to some adjustments made to the remittance data presented here. The caveats attached to our remittance data are:

(a) For some countries, data on remittance has been missing over several years. Missing value can significantly affect the result of data analysis of our time series data; thus, we use the Last Observation Carried Forward (LOCF) and Next Observation Carried Backward (NOCB) methods. These methods replace missing values either with the immediately preceding observed value or the subsequent observed value. These are potentially useful for time series data but may introduce bias if the data isn’t stationary.

(b) For several countries, including China, Portugal, Spain, and Vietnam, the ratio of personal transfers to the current transfer total under the secondary income has been used in the past to estimate personal transfer data since disaggregated current transfer data is unavailable. However, only what’s presented in the IMF BOP will be used (along with historical data).

(c) For Israel and Zimbabwe, the IMF’s BOP data is complemented with the central bank data. For Israel, personal transfer data from the central bank are being used due to their absence in the IMF’s BOP presentation. For Zimbabwe, remittance data have not been reported in the IMF’s BOP since 2020; thus, central bank data are being used from 2021 onwards.

(d) For the current year estimates of remittance flows, high-frequency data from central banks are being used to fill gaps in data. A few dozen central banks report monthly remittance data, mostly consistent with BOP-reported data. The list includes Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Rep., El Salvador, Georgia, Guatemala, Jamaica, Kenya, Kyrgyz Republic, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, Nicaragua, Pakistan, the Philippines, Serbia, Sri Lanka, and Ukraine.

Statisticalconceptandmethodology:
The two main components of personal remittances, "personal transfers" and "compensation of employees", are items in the balance of payments (BPM6) framework. Both of these standard components are recorded in the current account.
"Personal transfers", a new item in the Balance of Payments (BPM6) represents a broader definition of worker remittances. Personal transfers include all current transfers in cash or in kind between resident and nonresident individuals, independent of the source of income of the sender (irrespective of whether the sender receives income from labor, entrepreneurial or property income, social benefits, and any other types of transfers; or disposes assets) and the relationship between the households (irrespective of whether they are related or unrelated individuals).

Compensation of employees refers to the income of border, seasonal, and other short-term workers who are employed in an economy where they are not resident and of residents employed by nonresident entities. Compensation of employees represents remuneration in return for the labor input to the production process contributed by an individual in an employer-employee relationship with the enterprise. Compensation of employees is recorded gross and includes amounts paid by the employee as taxes or for other purposes in the economy where the work is performed. Compensation of employees has three main components: wages and salaries in cash, wages and salaries in kind, and employers' social contributions.


IndicatorName: Personal remittances, received (% of GDP)

Longdefinition: Personal remittances comprise personal transfers and compensation of employees. Personal transfers consist of all current transfers in cash or in kind made or received by resident households to or from nonresident households. Personal transfers thus include all current transfers between resident and nonresident individuals. Compensation of employees refers to the income of border, seasonal, and other short-term workers who are employed in an economy where they are not resident and of residents employed by nonresident entities. Data are the sum of two items defined in the sixth edition of the IMF's Balance of Payments Manual: personal transfers and compensation of employees.

Source: World Bank staff estimates based on IMF balance of payments data, and World Bank and OECD GDP estimates.


IndicatorName: Control of Corruption: Estimate

Longdefinition: Control of Corruption captures perceptions of the extent to which public power is exercised for private gain, including both petty and grand forms of corruption, as well as "capture" of the state by elites and private interests. Estimate gives the country's score on the aggregate indicator, in units of a standard normal distribution, i.e. ranging from approximately -2.5 to 2.5.

Othernotes: The Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) are a research dataset summarizing the views on the quality of governance provided by a large number of enterprise, citizen and expert survey respondents in industrial and developing countries. These data are gathered from a number of survey institutes, think tanks, non-governmental organizations, international organizations, and private sector firms. The WGI do not reflect the official views of the Natural Resource Governance Institute, the Brookings Institution, the World Bank, its Executive Directors, or the countries they represent. The WGI are not used by the World Bank Group to allocate resources.

Relatedsourcelinks: Worldwide Governance Indicators website (https://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/)

Source: Detailed documentation of the WGI, interactive tools for exploring the data, and full access to the underlying source data available at www.govindicators.org.The WGI are produced by Daniel Kaufmann (Natural Resource Governance Institute and Brookings Institution) and Aart Kraay (World Bank Development Research Group).  Please cite Kaufmann, Daniel, Aart Kraay and Massimo Mastruzzi (2010).  "The Worldwide Governance Indicators:  Methodology and Analytical Issues".  World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 5430 (http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1682130).  The WGI do not reflect the official views of the Natural Resource Governance Institute, the Brookings Institution, the World Bank, its Executive Directors, or the countries they represent.

Topic: Public Sector: Policy & institutions


IndicatorName: Control of Corruption: Number of Sources

Longdefinition: Control of Corruption captures perceptions of the extent to which public power is exercised for private gain, including both petty and grand forms of corruption, as well as "capture" of the state by elites and private interests. Number of sources indicates the number of underlying data sources on which the aggregate estimate is based.


IndicatorName: Control of Corruption: Percentile Rank

Longdefinition: Control of Corruption captures perceptions of the extent to which public power is exercised for private gain, including both petty and grand forms of corruption, as well as "capture" of the state by elites and private interests.  Percentile rank indicates the country's rank among all countries covered by the aggregate indicator, with 0 corresponding to lowest rank, and 100 to highest rank.  Percentile ranks have been adjusted to correct for changes over time in the composition of the countries covered by the WGI.


IndicatorName: Control of Corruption: Percentile Rank, Lower Bound of 90% Confidence Interval

Longdefinition: Control of Corruption captures perceptions of the extent to which public power is exercised for private gain, including both petty and grand forms of corruption, as well as "capture" of the state by elites and private interests.  Percentile rank indicates the country's rank among all countries covered by the aggregate indicator, with 0 corresponding to lowest rank, and 100 to highest rank.  Percentile ranks have been adjusted to correct for changes over time in the composition of the countries covered by the WGI.  Percentile Rank Lower refers to lower bound of 90 percent confidence interval for governance, expressed in percentile rank terms.


IndicatorName: Control of Corruption: Percentile Rank, Upper Bound of 90% Confidence Interval

Longdefinition: Control of Corruption captures perceptions of the extent to which public power is exercised for private gain, including both petty and grand forms of corruption, as well as "capture" of the state by elites and private interests.  Percentile rank indicates the country's rank among all countries covered by the aggregate indicator, with 0 corresponding to lowest rank, and 100 to highest rank.  Percentile ranks have been adjusted to correct for changes over time in the composition of the countries covered by the WGI.  Percentile Rank Upper refers to upper bound of 90 percent confidence interval for governance, expressed in percentile rank terms.


IndicatorName: Control of Corruption: Standard Error

Longdefinition: Control of Corruption captures perceptions of the extent to which public power is exercised for private gain, including both petty and grand forms of corruption, as well as "capture" of the state by elites and private interests.   Standard error indicates the precision of the estimate of governance.  Larger values of the standard error indicate less precise estimates.  A 90 percent confidence interval for the governance estimate is given by the estimate +/- 1.64 times the standard error.


Developmentrelevance:
Stock market size can be measured in various ways, and each may produce a different ranking of countries.

The development of an economy's financial markets is closely related to its overall development. Well-functioning financial systems provide good and easily accessible information. That lowers transaction costs, which in turn improves resource allocation and boosts economic growth. Both banking systems and stock markets enhance growth, the main factor in poverty reduction. At low levels of economic development commercial banks tend to dominate the financial system, while at higher levels domestic stock markets tend to become more active and efficient relative to domestic banks.

Open economies with sound macroeconomic policies, good legal systems, and shareholder protection attract capital and therefore have larger financial markets. Recent research on stock market development shows that modern communications technology and increased financial integration have resulted in more cross-border capital flows, a stronger presence of financial firms around the world, and the migration of stock exchange activities to international exchanges. Many firms in emerging markets now cross-list on international exchanges, which provides them with lower cost capital and more liquidity-traded shares. However, this also means that exchanges in emerging markets may not have enough financial activity to sustain them, putting pressure on them to rethink their operations.

The S&P Global Equity Index Series covers approximately 11,000 securities from over 80 countries. It includes the S&P Global Broad Market Index (BMI), S&P Global 1200, S&P/IFCI, and S&P Frontier BMI. All indices are float-adjusted, market capitalization-weighted indices and include security classifications for country, size, style and industry.

The S&P Global Broad Market Index (BMI) is a global index suite with a transparent, modular structure that has been fully float adjusted since 1989. This index series employs a transparent and consistent methodology across all countries and includes approximately 10,000 stocks from 26 developed and 20 emerging markets.

The S&P Global 1200, a real-time, tradable global equity index covers approximately 70 percent of the world's market capitalization, giving a detail view of the world economy. It is a composite of seven headline regional indices: S&P 500®, S&P Europe 350, S&P TOPIX 150, S&P/TSX 60, S&P/ASX All Australian 50, S&P Asia 50 and S&P Latin America 40.

IndicatorName: S&P Global Equity Indices (annual % change)

Limitationsandexceptions:
The percentage change in stock market prices in U.S. dollars for developing economies is from Standard & Poor's Global Equity Indices (S&P IFCI) and Standard & Poor's Frontier Broad Market Index (BMI). The percentage change for France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States is from local stock market prices.

The indicator is an important measure of overall performance. Regulatory and institutional factors that can affect investor confidence, such as entry and exit restrictions, the existence of a securities and exchange commission, and the quality of laws to protect investors, may influence the functioning of stock markets.

Because markets included in Standard & Poor's emerging markets category vary widely in level of development, it is best to look at the entire category to identify the most significant market trends. And it is useful to remember that stock market trends may be distorted by currency conversions, especially when a currency has registered a significant devaluation.

Longdefinition: S&P Global Equity Indices measure the U.S. dollar price change in the stock markets covered by the S&P/IFCI and S&P/Frontier BMI country indices.

Source: Standard & Poor's, Global Stock Markets Factbook and supplemental S&P data.

Statisticalconceptandmethodology: Ratios of end-of-period levels in U.S. dollars over previous end-of-period values in U.S. dollars times 100. These indexes are widely used benchmarks for international portfolio management.

Topic: Financial Sector: Capital markets


Developmentrelevance:
Stock market size can be measured in various ways, and each may produce a different ranking of countries.

The development of an economy's financial markets is closely related to its overall development. Well-functioning financial systems provide good and easily accessible information which can lower transaction costs and subsequently improve resource allocation and boosts economic growth. Both banking systems and stock markets enhance growth, the main factor in poverty reduction. At low levels of economic development commercial banks tend to dominate the financial system, while at higher levels domestic stock markets tend to become more active and efficient relative to domestic banks.

Open economies with sound macroeconomic policies, good legal systems, and shareholder protection attract capital and therefore have larger financial markets. Recent research on stock market development shows that modern communications technology and increased financial integration have resulted in more cross-border capital flows, a stronger presence of financial firms around the world, and the migration of stock exchange activities to international exchanges. Many firms in emerging markets now cross-list on international exchanges, which provides them with lower cost capital and more liquidity-traded shares. However, this also means that exchanges in emerging markets may not have enough financial activity to sustain them, putting pressure on them to rethink their operations.

Generalcomments: Stock market data were previously sourced from Standard & Poor's until they discontinued their "Global Stock Markets Factbook" and database in April 2013. Time series have been replaced in December 2015 with data from the World Federation of Exchanges and may differ from the previous S&P definitions and methodology.

IndicatorName: Market capitalization of listed domestic companies (current US$)

Limitationsandexceptions: Data cover measures of size (market capitalization, number of listed domestic companies) and liquidity (value of shares traded as a percentage of gross domestic product, value of shares traded as a percentage of market capitalization). The comparability of such data across countries may be limited by conceptual and statistical weaknesses, such as inaccurate reporting and differences in accounting standards. Regional stock exchanges such as Euronext, Nasdaq Nordic and Baltics, and BRVM are not counted.

Longdefinition: Market capitalization (also known as market value) is the share price times the number of shares outstanding (including their several classes) for listed domestic companies. Investment funds, unit trusts, and companies whose only business goal is to hold shares of other listed companies are excluded. Data are end of year values converted to U.S. dollars using corresponding year-end foreign exchange rates.

Source: World Federation of Exchanges database.

Statisticalconceptandmethodology: Market capitalization figures include: shares of listed domestic companies; shares of foreign companies which are exclusively listed on an exchange (i.e., the foreign company is not listed on any other exchange); common and preferred shares of domestic companies; and shares without voting rights. Market capitalization figures exclude: collective investment funds ; rights, warrants, ETFs, convertible instruments ; options, futures ; foreign listed shares other than exclusively listed ones; companies whose only business goal is to hold shares of other listed companies, such as holding companies and investment companies, regardless of their legal status; and companies admitted to trading (i.e., companies whose shares are traded at the exchange but not listed at the exchange).


IndicatorName: Market capitalization of listed domestic companies (% of GDP)

Longdefinition: Market capitalization (also known as market value) is the share price times the number of shares outstanding (including their several classes) for listed domestic companies. Investment funds, unit trusts, and companies whose only business goal is to hold shares of other listed companies are excluded. Data are end of year values.


IndicatorName: Listed domestic companies, total

Limitationsandexceptions: Data cover measures of size (market capitalization, number of listed domestic companies) and liquidity (value of shares traded as a percentage of gross domestic product, value of shares traded as a percentage of market capitalization). The comparability of such data across countries may be limited by conceptual and statistical weaknesses, such as inaccurate reporting and differences in accounting standards.

Longdefinition: Listed domestic companies, including foreign companies which are exclusively listed, are those which have shares listed on an exchange at the end of the year. Investment funds, unit trusts, and companies whose only business goal is to hold shares of other listed companies, such as holding companies and investment companies, regardless of their legal status, are excluded. A company with several classes of shares is counted once. Only companies admitted to listing on the exchange are included.

Statisticalconceptandmethodology: A company is considered domestic when it is incorporated in the same country as where the exchange is located. The only exception is the case of foreign companies which are exclusively listed on an exchange (i.e., the foreign company is not listed on any other exchange as defined in the domestic market capitalization definition).


IndicatorName: Stocks traded, total value (current US$)

Limitationsandexceptions: Data cover measures of size (market capitalization, number of listed domestic companies) and liquidity (value of shares traded as a percentage of gross domestic product, value of shares traded as a percentage of market capitalization). The comparability of such data across countries may be limited by conceptual and statistical weaknesses, such as inaccurate reporting and differences in accounting standards. Only EOB trades are included in the total value of shares traded.

Longdefinition: The value of shares traded is the total number of shares traded, both domestic and foreign, multiplied by their respective matching prices. Figures are single counted (only one side of the transaction is considered). Companies admitted to listing and admitted to trading are included in the data. Data are end of year values converted to U.S. dollars using corresponding year-end foreign exchange rates.

Statisticalconceptandmethodology: The value of shares traded represent the transfer of ownership effected automatically through the exchange's electronic order book (EOB), where orders placed by trading members are usually exposed to all market users and automatically matched according to precise rules set up by the exchange, generally on a price/time priority basis. For data before 2001, the WFE used two different approaches for the collection of trading data, depending on the individual stock exchange's market organization and rules. The first approach is the Trading System View (TSV). Stock exchanges adopting this view count only those transactions which pass through their trading system or trading floor. The TSV is generally adopted by exchanges which operate a centralized order book (order-driven market). Trades done by their members off the exchange are not included. The second approach is the Regulated Environment View (REV). Stock exchanges in this category include all transactions subject to supervision by the market authority, including transactions made by members, and sometimes non-members, on outside trading systems and transactions into foreign markets. Figures reported under the REV approach will be higher than those reported under the TSV approach.


IndicatorName: Stocks traded, total value (% of GDP)

Longdefinition: The value of shares traded is the total number of shares traded, both domestic and foreign, multiplied by their respective matching prices. Figures are single counted (only one side of the transaction is considered). Companies admitted to listing and admitted to trading are included in the data. Data are end of year values.


IndicatorName: Stocks traded, turnover ratio of domestic shares (%)

Limitationsandexceptions: Data cover measures of size (market capitalization, number of listed domestic companies) and liquidity (value of shares traded as a percentage of gross domestic product, value of shares traded as a percentage of market capitalization). The comparability of such data across countries may be limited by conceptual and statistical weaknesses, such as inaccurate reporting and differences in accounting standards. Only domestic shares are used in order to be consistent with domestic market capitalization.

Longdefinition: Turnover ratio is the value of domestic shares traded divided by their market capitalization. The value is annualized by multiplying the monthly average by 12.

Statisticalconceptandmethodology: Turnover ratio is the value of electronic order book (EOB) domestic shares traded divided by their market capitalization. The value is annualized by multiplying the monthly average by 12, according to the following formula: (Monthly EOB domestic shares traded / Month-end domestic market capitalization) x 12.


IndicatorName: Net bilateral aid flows from DAC donors, Australia (current US$)

Limitationsandexceptions:
Data exclude DAC members’ multilateral aid (contributions to the regular budgets of the multilateral institutions). However, projects executed by multilateral institutions or nongovernmental organizations on behalf of DAC members are classified as bilateral aid (since the donor country effectively controls the use of the funds) and are included in the data.

Aid to unspecified economies is included in regional totals and, when possible, income group totals. Aid not allocated by country or region - including administrative costs, research on development, and aid to nongovernmental organizations - is included in the world total. Thus regional and income group totals do not sum to the world total.

Longdefinition: Net bilateral aid flows from DAC donors are the net disbursements of official development assistance (ODA) or official aid from the members of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC). Net disbursements are gross disbursements of grants and loans minus repayments of principal on earlier loans. ODA consists of loans made on concessional terms (with a grant element of at least 25 percent, calculated at a rate of discount of 10 percent) and grants made to promote economic development and welfare in countries and territories in the DAC list of ODA recipients. Official aid refers to aid flows from official donors to countries and territories in part II of the DAC list of recipients: more advanced countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the countries of the former Soviet Union, and certain advanced developing countries and territories. Official aid is provided under terms and conditions similar to those for ODA. Part II of the DAC List was abolished in 2005. The collection of data on official aid and other resource flows to Part II countries ended with 2004 data. DAC members are Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Lithuania, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Slovienia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States, and European Union Institutions. Regional aggregates include data for economies not specified elsewhere. World and income group totals include aid not allocated by country or region. Data are in current U.S. dollars.

Source: Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Geographical Distribution of Financial Flows to Developing Countries, Development Co-operation Report, and International Development Statistics database. Data are available online at: https://data-explorer.oecd.org/.

Statisticalconceptandmethodology:
The Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has 32 members - 31 individual economies and 1 multilateral institution (European Union institutions).

Data are based on donor country reports of bilateral programs, which may differ from reports by recipient countries. Recipients may lack access to information on such aid expenditures as development-oriented research, stipends and tuition costs for aid-financed students in donor countries, and payment of experts hired by donor countries. Moreover, a full accounting would include donor country contributions to multilateral institutions, the flow of resources from multilateral institutions to recipient countries, and flows from countries that are not members of DAC.

Some of the aid recipients are also aid donors. Development cooperation activities by non-DAC members have increased in recent years and in some cases surpass those of individual DAC members. Some non-DAC donors report their development cooperation activities to DAC on a voluntary basis, but many do not yet report their aid flows to DAC.

Topic: Economic Policy & Debt: Official development assistance


IndicatorName: Net bilateral aid flows from DAC donors, Austria (current US$)


IndicatorName: Net bilateral aid flows from DAC donors, Belgium (current US$)


IndicatorName: Net bilateral aid flows from DAC donors, Canada (current US$)


IndicatorName: Net bilateral aid flows from DAC donors, European Union institutions (current US$)


IndicatorName: Net bilateral aid flows from DAC donors, Switzerland (current US$)


IndicatorName: Net bilateral aid flows from DAC donors, Czech Republic (current US$)


IndicatorName: Net bilateral aid flows from DAC donors, Germany (current US$)


IndicatorName: Net bilateral aid flows from DAC donors, Denmark (current US$)


IndicatorName: Net bilateral aid flows from DAC donors, Spain (current US$)


IndicatorName: Net bilateral aid flows from DAC donors, Estonia (current US$)


IndicatorName: Net bilateral aid flows from DAC donors, Finland (current US$)


IndicatorName: Net bilateral aid flows from DAC donors, France (current US$)


IndicatorName: Net bilateral aid flows from DAC donors, United Kingdom (current US$)


IndicatorName: Net bilateral aid flows from DAC donors, Greece (current US$)


IndicatorName: Net bilateral aid flows from DAC donors, Hungary (current US$)


IndicatorName: Net bilateral aid flows from DAC donors, Ireland (current US$)


IndicatorName: Net bilateral aid flows from DAC donors, Iceland (current US$)


IndicatorName: Net bilateral aid flows from DAC donors, Italy (current US$)


IndicatorName: Net bilateral aid flows from DAC donors, Japan (current US$)


IndicatorName: Net bilateral aid flows from DAC donors, Korea, Rep. (current US$)


IndicatorName: Net bilateral aid flows from DAC donors, Lithuania (current US$)


IndicatorName: Net bilateral aid flows from DAC donors, Luxembourg (current US$)


IndicatorName: Net bilateral aid flows from DAC donors, Netherlands (current US$)


IndicatorName: Net bilateral aid flows from DAC donors, Norway (current US$)


IndicatorName: Net bilateral aid flows from DAC donors, New Zealand (current US$)


IndicatorName: Net bilateral aid flows from DAC donors, Poland (current US$)


IndicatorName: Net bilateral aid flows from DAC donors, Portugal (current US$)


IndicatorName: Net bilateral aid flows from DAC donors, Slovak Republic (current US$)


IndicatorName: Net bilateral aid flows from DAC donors, Slovenia (current US$)


IndicatorName: Net bilateral aid flows from DAC donors, Sweden (current US$)


IndicatorName: Net bilateral aid flows from DAC donors, Total (current US$)


IndicatorName: Net bilateral aid flows from DAC donors, United States (current US$)


IndicatorName: Net ODA provided, to the least developed countries (current US$)

Longdefinition: Net Official development assistance (ODA) comprises grants or loans to developing countries and territories on the OECD/DAC list of aid recipients that are undertaken by the official sector with promotion of economic development and welfare as the main objective and at concessional financial terms. The list of least developed countries (LDCs) has been agreed by the General Assembly, on the recommendation of the Committee for Development Policy, Economic and Social Council.


IndicatorName: Net ODA provided to the least developed countries (% of GNI)

Longdefinition: Net Official development assistance (ODA) comprises grants or loans to developing countries and territories on the OECD/DAC list of aid recipients that are undertaken by the official sector with promotion of economic development and welfare as the main objective and at concessional financial terms. The list of least developed countries (LDCs) has been agreed by the General Assembly, on the recommendation of the Committee for Development Policy, Economic and Social Council. Series is shown as a share of donors' GNI.


IndicatorName: Net ODA provided, total (current US$)

Longdefinition: Net Official development assistance (ODA) comprises grants or loans to developing countries and territories on the OECD/DAC list of aid recipients that are undertaken by the official sector with promotion of economic development and welfare as the main objective and at concessional financial terms.


IndicatorName: Net ODA provided, total (% of GNI)

Longdefinition: Net Official development assistance (ODA) comprises grants or loans to developing countries and territories on the OECD/DAC list of aid recipients that are undertaken by the official sector with promotion of economic development and welfare as the main objective and at concessional financial terms. It is shown as a share of donors' GNI.


IndicatorName: Net ODA provided, total (constant 2021 US$)

Longdefinition: Net Official development assistance (ODA) comprises grants or loans to developing countries and territories on the OECD/DAC list of aid recipients that are undertaken by the official sector with promotion of economic development and welfare as the main objective and at concessional financial terms. Data are in constant 2021 U.S. dollars.


Dataset: International Debt Statistics

Developmentrelevance:
External indebtedness affects a country's creditworthiness and investor perceptions. Nonreporting countries might have outstanding debt with the World Bank, other international financial institutions, or private creditors. Total debt service is contrasted with countries' ability to obtain foreign exchange through exports of goods, services, primary income, and workers' remittances.

Debt ratios are used to assess the sustainability of a country's debt service obligations, but no absolute rules determine what values are too high. Empirical analysis of developing countries' experience and debt service performance shows that debt service difficulties become increasingly likely when the present value of debt reaches 200 percent of exports. Still, what constitutes a sustainable debt burden varies by country. Countries with fast-growing economies and exports are likely to be able to sustain higher debt levels.

IndicatorName: External debt stocks, total (DOD, current US$)

Longdefinition: Total external debt is debt owed to nonresidents repayable in currency, goods, or services. Total external debt is the sum of public, publicly guaranteed, and private nonguaranteed long-term debt, use of IMF credit, and short-term debt. Short-term debt includes all debt having an original maturity of one year or less and interest in arrears on long-term debt. Data are in current U.S. dollars.

Shortdefinition: Total external debt is debt owed to nonresidents repayable in currency, goods, or services. It is the sum of public, publicly guaranteed, and private nonguaranteed long-term debt, short-term debt, and use of IMF credit. Data are in current U.S. dollars.

Source: World Bank, International Debt Statistics.

Statisticalconceptandmethodology: Data on external debt are gathered through the World Bank's Debtor Reporting System (DRS). Long term debt data are compiled using the countries report on public and publicly guaranteed borrowing on a loan-by-loan basis and private non guaranteed borrowing on an aggregate basis. These data are supplemented by information from major multilateral banks and official lending agencies in major creditor countries. Short-term debt data are gathered from the Quarterly External Debt Statistics (QEDS) database, jointly developed by the World Bank and the IMF and from creditors through the reporting systems of the Bank for International Settlements. Debt data are reported in the currency of repayment and compiled and published in U.S. dollars. End-of-period exchange rates are used for the compilation of stock figures (amount of debt outstanding), and projected debt service and annual average exchange rates are used for the flows. Exchange rates are taken from the IMF's International Financial Statistics. Debt repayable in multiple currencies, goods, or services and debt with a provision for maintenance of the value of the currency of repayment are shown at book value.

Topic: Economic Policy & Debt: External debt: Debt outstanding


Developmentrelevance:
External debt is that part of the total debt in a country that is owed to creditors outside the country. The debtors can be the government, corporations or private households. The debt includes money owed to private commercial banks, other governments, or international financial institutions.

External indebtedness affects a country's creditworthiness and investor perceptions. Nonreporting countries might have outstanding debt with the World Bank, other international financial institutions, or private creditors. Total debt service is contrasted with countries' ability to obtain foreign exchange through exports of goods, services, primary income, and workers' remittances.

Debt ratios are used to assess the sustainability of a country's debt service obligations, but no absolute rules determine what values are too high. Empirical analysis of developing countries' experience and debt service performance shows that debt service difficulties become increasingly likely when the present value of debt reaches 200 percent of exports. Still, what constitutes a sustainable debt burden varies by country. Countries with fast-growing economies and exports are likely to be able to sustain higher debt levels. Various indicators determine a sustainable level of external debt, including:

a) debt to GDP ratio
b) foreign debt to exports ratio
c) government debt to current fiscal revenue ratio
d) share of foreign debt
e) short-term debt
f) concessional debt in the total debt stock

IndicatorName: External debt stocks (% of GNI)

Longdefinition: Total external debt stocks to gross national income. Total external debt is debt owed to nonresidents repayable in currency, goods, or services. Total external debt is the sum of public, publicly guaranteed, and private nonguaranteed long-term debt, use of IMF credit, and short-term debt. Short-term debt includes all debt having an original maturity of one year or less and interest in arrears on long-term debt. GNI (formerly GNP) is the sum of value added by all resident producers plus any product taxes (less subsidies) not included in the valuation of output plus net receipts of primary income (compensation of employees and property income) from abroad.

Topic: Economic Policy & Debt: External debt: Debt ratios & other items


IndicatorName: Use of IMF credit (DOD, current US$)

Longdefinition: Use of IMF Credit: Data related to the operations of the IMF are provided by the IMF Treasurer’s Department. They are converted from special drawing rights into dollars using end-of-period exchange rates for stocks and average-over-the-period exchange rates for flows. IMF trust fund operations under the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility, Extended Fund Facility, Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility, and Structural Adjustment Facility (Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility in 1999) are presented together with all of the IMF’s special facilities (buffer stock, supplemental reserve, compensatory and contingency facilities, oil facilities, and other facilities). SDR allocations are also included in this category. According to the BPM6, SDR allocations are recorded as the incurrence of a debt liability of the member receiving them (because of a requirement to repay the allocation in certain circumstances, and also because interest accrues). This debt item is introduced for the first time this year with historical data starting in 1999.

Shortdefinition: Use of IMF credit denotes members’ drawings on the IMF other than amounts drawn against the country’s reserve tranche position. Use of IMF credit includes purchases and drawings under Stand-By, Extended, Structural Adjustment, Enhanced Structural Adjustment, and Systemic Transformation Facility Arrangements as well as Trust Fund loans. SDR allocations are also included in this category.

Statisticalconceptandmethodology:
Data related to the operations of the IMF come from the IMF Treasurer's Department and are converted from special drawing rights (SDRs) into dollars using end-of-period exchange rates for stocks and average over the period exchange rates for converting flows. DOD refers to disbursed and outstanding debt; data are in current U.S. dollars.

Data on external debt are gathered through the World Bank's Debtor Reporting System (DRS). Long term debt data are compiled using the countries report on public and publicly guaranteed borrowing on a loan-by-loan basis and private non guaranteed borrowing on an aggregate basis. These data are supplemented by information from major multilateral banks and official lending agencies in major creditor countries. Short-term debt data are gathered from the Quarterly External Debt Statistics (QEDS) database, jointly developed by the World Bank and the IMF and from creditors through the reporting systems of the Bank for International Settlements. Debt data are reported in the currency of repayment and compiled and published in U.S. dollars. End-of-period exchange rates are used for the compilation of stock figures (amount of debt outstanding), and projected debt service and annual average exchange rates are used for the flows. Exchange rates are taken from the IMF's International Financial Statistics. Debt repayable in multiple currencies, goods, or services and debt with a provision for maintenance of the value of the currency of repayment are shown at book value.


IndicatorName: External debt stocks, long-term (DOD, current US$)

Longdefinition: Long-term debt is debt that has an original or extended maturity of more than one year. It has three components: public, publicly guaranteed, and private nonguaranteed debt. Data are in current U.S. dollars.


IndicatorName: External debt stocks, private nonguaranteed (PNG) (DOD, current US$)

Longdefinition: Private nonguaranteed external debt comprises long-term external obligations of private debtors that are not guaranteed for repayment by a public entity. Data are in current U.S. dollars.


IndicatorName: External debt stocks, public and publicly guaranteed (PPG) (DOD, current US$)

Longdefinition: Public and publicly guaranteed debt comprises long-term external obligations of public debtors, including the national government,  Public Corporations, State Owned Enterprises, Development Banks and Other Mixed Enterprises, political subdivisions (or an agency of either), autonomous public bodies, and external obligations of private debtors that are guaranteed for repayment by a public entity. Data are in current U.S. dollars.


IndicatorName: External debt stocks, short-term (DOD, current US$)

Longdefinition: Short-term external debt is defined as debt that has an original maturity of one year or less. Available data permit no distinction between public and private nonguaranteed short-term debt. Data are in current U.S. dollars.


IndicatorName: Short-term debt (% of total reserves)

Limitationsandexceptions:
The DRS encourages debtor countries to voluntarily provide information on their short-term external obligations. By its nature, short-term external debt is difficult to monitor: loan-by-loan registration is normally impractical, and monitoring systems typically rely on information requested periodically by the central bank from the banking sector. The World Bank regards the debtor country as the authoritative source of information on its short-term debt. Where such information is not available from the debtor country, data are derived from BIS data on international bank lending based on time remaining to original maturity. The data are reported based on residual maturity, but an estimate of short-term external liabilities by original maturity can be derived by deducting from claims due in one year those that have a maturity of between one and two years. However, BIS data include liabilities reported only by banks within the BIS reporting area. The results should thus be interpreted with caution. Because short-term debt poses an immediate burden and is particularly important for monitoring vulnerability, it is compared with total debt and foreign exchange reserves, which are instrumental in providing coverage for such obligations.

A country's external debt burden, both debt outstanding and debt service, affects its creditworthiness and vulnerability. While data related to public and publicly guaranteed debt are reported to the DRS on a loan-by-loan basis, aggregate data on long-term private nonguaranteed debt are reported annually and are reported by the country or estimated by World Bank staff for countries where this type of external debt is known to be significant. Estimates are based on national data from the World Bank's Quarterly External Debt Statistics.

Longdefinition: Short-term debt includes all debt having an original maturity of one year or less and interest in arrears on long-term debt. Total reserves includes gold.


IndicatorName: Short-term debt (% of exports of goods, services and primary income)

Longdefinition: Short-term external debt is defined as debt that has an original maturity of one year or less. Available data permit no distinction between public and private nonguaranteed short-term debt.


IndicatorName: Short-term debt (% of total external debt)

Longdefinition: Short-term debt includes all debt having an original maturity of one year or less and interest in arrears on long-term debt. Total external debt is debt owed to nonresidents repayable in currency, goods, or services. Total external debt is the sum of public, publicly guaranteed, and private nonguaranteed long-term debt, use of IMF credit, and short-term debt.


IndicatorName: PPG, IBRD (DOD, current US$)

Longdefinition: Public and publicly guaranteed debt outstanding from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) is nonconcessional. Nonconcessional debt excludes loans with an original grant element of 35 percent or more. Data are in current U.S. dollars.


IndicatorName: PPG, IDA (DOD, current US$)

Longdefinition: Public and publicly guaranteed debt outstanding from the International Development Association (IDA) is concessional. Concessional debt is defined as loans with an original grant element of 35 percent or more. The grant element of a loan is the grant equivalent expressed as a percentage of the amount committed. It is used as a measure of the overall cost of borrowing. The grant equivalent of a loan is its commitment (present) value, less the discounted present value of its contractual debt service; conventionally, future service payments are discounted at 5 percent. Data are in current U.S. dollars.


IndicatorName: IBRD loans and IDA credits (DOD, current US$)

Longdefinition: IBRD loans and IDA credits are public and publicly guaranteed debt extended by the World Bank Group. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) lends at market rates. Credits from the International Development Association (IDA) are at concessional rates. Data are in current U.S. dollars.


IndicatorName: Present value of external debt (current US$)

Longdefinition: Present value of debt is the sum of short-term external debt plus the discounted sum of total debt service payments due on public, publicly guaranteed, and private nonguaranteed long-term external debt over the life of existing loans. This calculation assumes that the PV of loans with a negative grant element is equal to the nominal value of the loan. Data are in current U.S. dollars.

Shortdefinition: Present value of debt is the sum of short-term external debt plus the discounted sum of total debt service payments due on public, publicly guaranteed, and private nonguaranteed long-term external debt over the life of existing loans. Data are in current U.S. dollars.


IndicatorName: Present value of external debt (% of exports of goods, services and income)

Longdefinition: Present value of debt is the sum of short-term external debt plus the discounted sum of total debt service payments due on public, publicly guaranteed, and private nonguaranteed long-term external debt over the life of existing loans. This calculation assumes that the PV of loans with a negative grant element is equal to the nominal value of the loan. The exports denominator is a three-year average.

Shortdefinition: Present value of debt is the sum of short-term external debt plus the discounted sum of total debt service payments due on public, publicly guaranteed, and private nonguaranteed long-term external debt over the life of existing loans. The exports denominator is a three-year average.


IndicatorName: Present value of external debt (% of GNI)

Longdefinition: Present value of debt is the sum of short-term external debt plus the discounted sum of total debt service payments due on public, publicly guaranteed, and private nonguaranteed long-term external debt over the life of existing loans. This calculation assumes that the PV of loans with a negative grant element is equal to the nominal value of the loan. The GNI denominator is a three-year average.

Shortdefinition: Present value of debt is the sum of short-term external debt plus the discounted sum of total debt service payments due on public, publicly guaranteed, and private nonguaranteed long-term external debt over the life of existing loans. The GNI denominator is a three-year average.


IndicatorName: Net financial flows, bilateral (NFL, current US$)

Longdefinition: Bilateral debt includes loans from governments and their agencies (including central banks), loans from autonomous bodies, and direct loans from official export credit agencies. Net flows (or net lending or net disbursements) received by the borrower during the year are disbursements minus principal repayments. Data are in current U.S. dollars.

Statisticalconceptandmethodology: Data show concessional and nonconcessional financial flows from official bilateral sources. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC) defines concessional flows from bilateral donors as flows with a grant element of at least 25 percent; they are evaluated assuming a 10 percent nominal discount rate.

Topic: Economic Policy & Debt: External debt: Net flows


IndicatorName: Portfolio investment, bonds (PPG + PNG) (NFL, current US$)

Longdefinition: Bonds are securities issued with a fixed rate of interest for a period of more than one year. They include net flows through cross-border public and publicly guaranteed and private nonguaranteed bond issues. Data are in current U.S. dollars.

Statisticalconceptandmethodology:
Bonds are debt instruments issued by public and publicly guaranteed or private debtors with durations of one year or longer. Bonds usually give the holder the unconditional right to fixed money income or contractually determined, variable money income.

Data on external debt are gathered through the World Bank's Debtor Reporting System (DRS). Long term debt data are compiled using the countries report on public and publicly guaranteed borrowing on a loan-by-loan basis and private non guaranteed borrowing on an aggregate basis. These data are supplemented by information from major multilateral banks and official lending agencies in major creditor countries. Short-term debt data are gathered from the Quarterly External Debt Statistics (QEDS) database, jointly developed by the World Bank and the IMF and from creditors through the reporting systems of the Bank for International Settlements. Debt data are reported in the currency of repayment and compiled and published in U.S. dollars. End-of-period exchange rates are used for the compilation of stock figures (amount of debt outstanding), and projected debt service and annual average exchange rates are used for the flows. Exchange rates are taken from the IMF's International Financial Statistics. Debt repayable in multiple currencies, goods, or services and debt with a provision for maintenance of the value of the currency of repayment are shown at book value.