The Audit of the Balance-of-Payments Data from 2002 to 2004 on 16 September 2005

The audit policy of the balance-of-payments statistics is being implemented in compliance with the recommendations of the European Central Bank (ECB). As a rule, data may be modified for no more than two years before the year audited. As a rule, modifications of the balance-of-payments data as a consequence of auditing previous figures include the following: methodological modifications or amendments to the methodology and normal data source updating. Annual time series are available on the Internet site at:
http://www.bsi.si/html/financni_podatki/hit/placilne_bilance_EUR_1994_naprej.html (neznana povezava)
A. Methodological modifications or amendments

1. Accrued interest
Interest had been included in the balance-of-payments of Slovenia according to the payment concept up to the audit of this year. Owing to bringing the methodology in line with international recommendations (Balance-of-Payments Manual, 5th Edition), interest from loans has been calculated according to the accrual concept (accrued interest). As regards the balance-of-payments, accrued interest is included in income in the current account and it enhances the value of the financial instrument concerned in the financial account.

2. The c.i.f. and f.o.b. coefficients
The coefficient of adjusting the value of imports corrects (reduces) the value of the imports of goods (the data of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia - the c.i.f. parity) by the value of transport costs and insurance costs between the frontier of an exporter and an importer to the value measured according to the f.o.b. parity (demand arising from the balance-of-payments). Consequently, a direct comparison drawn with the value of exports is enabled and no double capture of the mentioned services occurs. After having been calculated in 1994 and 1999, the coefficient is calculated for the third time. The calculated coefficients are based on customs declarations, whereby the factors influencing the size of a coefficient are observed. These are primarily the following: the type of a means of transport, the kind of goods and the country of imports. A new coefficient has been included in the methodology as the five-year average since 2004. Amounting before to 1.0393, the coefficient amounts to 1.0306 in 2004. The results of the calculation of a coefficient were additionally confirmed by those of an enquiry carried out on a representative sample of companies in international trade in July and August.

B. Data source updating

3. Reinvested earnings
By means of reports on direct investment in 2004, the actual reinvested earnings were calculated for 2004. The data on reinvested earnings for 2002 and 2003 were also updated. Owing to a dramatic increase in reinvested earnings in recent years, the accrued calculation in the current year will be based on the three-year moving average (before: five-year moving average).

4. Debt write-offs
Based on the acquired data, it first turned out that debt write-offs on average represent about 0.9% of the value of the imports of goods in the inflows of capital transfers in 2004, whereas in 2003, they represented 0.6% of this value. Second, debt write-offs on average represented 1.9% of the value of the exports of goods in the outflows in 2004, whereas more than that in 2003, i.e. 2.2% of the value of the exports of goods. Taking into account both flows, developments in this regard were more favourable for residents of the Republic of Slovenia in 2004 with regard to 2003.

5. Trade in goods
On 11 August, 2005, the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia provided the Bank of Slovenia with the final data on Slovenia´s trade in goods in relation to foreign countries for 2004.

C. Current developments

Findings arising from the procedure of an audit influence the current calculations of the balance-of-payments in 2005 in the way described. The relative ratio of an improvement of the current account balance, after an audit carried out and methodological amendments applied, remains unchanged in the first seven months of the current year with regard to the same period of the previous year, only that the current account balance of the balance-of-payments stays at a little lower level ( http://www.bsi.si/html/financni_podatki/hit/placilna_bilanca_EUR.html) trenutno neznana povezava.