Statistical Terms Glossary

The current account includes all the transactions (other than those in financial items) that involve economic values and occur between resident and non- residents entities. Also covered are offsets to current economic values provided or acquired without a quid pro quo.
Specifically, the major classifications are:
- goods and services;
- income;
- current transfers

The balance of payments current account discrepancy is a discrepancy arising from uneven global recording of exports and imports

The financial account is one of the two major components under the financial and capital account. The major components of the financial account are:
-direct investment;
-portfolio investment;
- other investment;
-reserve assets.
The financial account records an economy’s transaction in external financial assets and liabilities. The major classifications in the financial account are:
- Functional type of investment (direct investment, portfolio investment, other investment, and reserve assets);
- Assets (residents’ financial claims on non resident) and liabilities non resident financial claims on resident);
- Instrument of investment (e.g. equity, debt);
- Sector of the domestic transactor (general government, monetary authorities, banks and other sectors)

Goods usually comprise the largest category of transactions that for the most part, involve changes of ownership between resident and non- residents. Goods comprise:
- general merchandise;
- goods for processing;
- repairs on goods;
- goods procured in ports by carriers;
- non-monetary gold.
In accordance with general balance of payments principles, change of ownership is the principle determining the coverage and time of recording of international transaction in goods. Certain exceptions are applied to the principle. Exports and imports of goods are recorded at market values at points of uniform valuation, that is, the custom frontiers of exporting economies

Income covers two types of transaction between residents and non-residents:
(i) those involving compensation of employees, which is paid to non-resident workers (e.g., border, seasonal and other shot-term workers), and (ii) those involving investment income receipts and payments on external financial assets and liabilities. Included in the latter are receipts and payments on direct investments, portfolio investment, other investment, and receipts on reserve assets.
Income derived from the use of tangible assets is excluded from income and classified, as appropriate, under leasing or rentals, under other business services , or under transaction. Financial leasing arrangements are considered evidence that a change of ownership is intended and part of the lease payments is construed as income of financial assets

Investment income (property income in the System of National Accounts (SNA)) covers income derived from a resident entity's ownership of foreign assets.
The most common types of investment income are income on equity (dividends) and income on debt (interest).
Dividends, including stock dividends, are the distribution of earning allocated to shares and other forms of participation in the equity of incorporated private enterprises, cooperatives, and public corporations. Dividends represents income that is payable without a binding agreement between the creditor and the debtor.
The components of investment income are classified as direct investment income, portfolio investment, and other investment income.

When all actual balance of payments entries are totalled, the resulting balance will almost inevitably show a net credit or a net debit. That balance is the result of errors and omissions in compilation of statements. Some of the errors and omissions may be related to recommendations for practical approximation to principles.
In balance of payments, the standard practice is to show separately an item for net errors and omissions. Labeled by some compilers as a balancing item or statistical discrepancy, that item is intended as an offset to the overstatement or understatement of the recorded components

Reserve assets consist of those external assets that are readily available to and controlled by monetary authorities for direct financing of payments imbalances, for indirectly regulating the magnitude of such imbalances through intervention in exchange markets to affect the currency exchange rate and/or for other purposes.
The category of reserve assets in the IMF's Balance of Payments Manual, Fifth Edition (BPM5) comprises:
- monetary gold;
- special drawing rights (SDRs);
- reserve position in the Fund;
- foreign exchange assets (consisting of currency and deposits and securities); and
- other claims

Services is the second major category of the current account. Services covers traditional items, such as travel and transportation and items, such as communications, financial and computer services, royalties and license fees, and many types of other business services, that are becoming increasingly important in international transactions.

The balance of primary incomes is the total value of the primary incomes receivable by an institutional unit or sector less the total of the primary incomes payable; at the level of the total economy it is described as “national income"

A balance sheet is a statement, drawn up at a particular point in time, of the values of assets owned by an institutional unit or sector and of the financial claims (i.e. liabilities) incurred by this unit or sector; for the economy as a whole, the balance sheet shows what is often referred to as “national wealth” - the sum of non-financial assets and net claims on the rest of the world.

The balance sheet account is an account showing the assets, liabilities and net worth of an institutional unit, or class of such units, as of a given date.

Refers to a management strategy that aims at distributing fishing pressure (mortality) across all trophic levels to ensure the maintaining of trophic relationships across species and sizes.

A vostro (your) account is another bank’s account with a reporting bank, while a nostro (our) account is a reporting bank’s account with another bank.

Ratio based on figures appearing in the balance sheet.

A balancing item is an accounting construct obtained by subtracting the total value of the entries on one side of an account (resources or changes in liabilities) from the total value of the entries on the other side (uses or changes in assets). It cannot be measured independently of the entries in the accounts; as a derived entry, it reflects the application of the general accounting rules to the specific entries on the two sides of the account.

Heavy material carried by a ship for ensuring proper stability, so as to avoid capsizing and to secure effective propulsion.

A loan repayment scheme, under which the last repayment is larger than the previous repayments. In some cases, the term is used to refer to a scheme, under which the whole loan is repaid at maturity.

A trilateral agreement on trade between Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania signed in 1994. In June 1996, the BFTA was extended to include agricultural trade, with effect from 1 January 1997. The agreement permits the removal of tariffs on all agricultural and food products of Baltic origin.

The Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission (also known as Helsinki Commission - HELCOM) is an intergovernmental organization of the nine Baltic coastal countries and the EU, protecting the marine environment from all sources of pollution. It is the governing body of the Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area and was first signed in 1974 (revised in 1992). Decisions taken by HELCOM — which require unanimous approval — are regarded as recommendations and are intended to be incorporated into the national legislation of the contracting parties.

The bandwidth is the band over which the communication system can be used without modification to the antenna or its tuning. Antennas can be categorized as narrow-band (e.g. dipole or Yagi) or broadband (log-periodic or vertical half-rhombic) - we could delete this portion.

Committee set up by banks to negotiate financing packages and restructuring arrangements.