Balance of Payments Coding System

The balance of payments coding system presented here has been developed by the International Monetary Fund in cooperation with the Statistical Office of the European Communities (EUROSTAT), the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the European Central Bank (ECB). The coding system is designed to facilitate the exchange of data on balance of payments, international investment position, international trade in services, and foreign currency liquidity among these organizations, their member states, and other interested organizations or entities.

This site explains in detail the coding system (the Guide), a sequential listing of the topic codes included in the system (the sequential list of codes), a listing organized along subject lines (the topical list of codes), and three examples of these codes used by the IMF for its data collection purposes (i.e., the IMF balance of payments statistics reporting code list, the IMF international investment position reporting code list, and the IMF reserves and foreign currency liquidity reporting code list).

Proposals for additional codes, questions about current codes or about the coding system, or other related queries may be directed to the e-mail or facsimile addresses shown on the left.