CENTRAL STATISTICS OFFICE
Presentation to Enterprise Statistics Liaison Group
November 2011
Brief Description of CSO’s Arrangements for BOP/IIP data
Collection, Compilation and Dissemination
Catherine Finneran, BOP A&D Division
November 2011
Presentation Structure
• BOP/IIP work organisation
• Data collection
• Differences between Foreign Trade Statistics and BOP
Merchandise
• BOP monthly, quarterly, annual compilation and
dissemination
• Integration of BOP and National Accounts
• Co-operation between CSO and the Central Bank of
Ireland
• Future developments
1.1 BOP Organisation in CSO
Director General
Director Macroeconomic Statistics
BOP & Financial Sector Division
(Data collection/processing)
BOP Analysis & Dissemination
Division
1.2 CSO BOP Compilation Responsibility
• BOP&FS Division
Maintenance
of Survey Management System (SMS)
Conduct of surveys
Data processing
• BOP A&D Division
Analysis
of overall quarterly BOP and IIP results,
publication and dissemination of results
Publication and dissemination of FDI, PI and
International Trade in Services statistics
Preparation
of ECB monthly BOP estimates
2.1 BOP Quarterly/Annual Collection
• New statutory collection system (BPM5 methodology) introduced in
1998
• Surveys conducted via Ministerial Order under the Statistics Act, 1993
• BOP SMS (enterprise register and survey registry systems) maintained
by CSO (BOP&FS Division)
• Quarterly enterprise surveys issued (smaller companies respond
annually)
• Quarterly inquiries issued to Central Bank and NTMA
• Foreign Trade Statistics used (BOP adjusted to reflect change of
ownership)
• CSO travel data used
• Other miscellaneous inquiries (e.g. gov. depts., embassies, charities)
2.2 BOP Quarterly/Annual Collection
BOP SMS - Enterprise Register system
- for manufacturing and non-financial companies
maintained largely from CSO sources (CBR in Cork Office),
Foreign Trade Statistics, other sources (e.g. media articles)
- for financial service companies
maintained largely from Central Bank, Companies Registration
Office and Department of Finance sources
2.3 BOP Quarterly/Annual Collection
BOP Surveys to non-financial companies
- a detailed ‘Services’ survey (BOP10) to about 220 companies
quarterly and about 260 different companies annually (480 in all);
imports/exports data by country
- a detailed quarterly ‘Assets and Liabilities’ survey (BOP40Q) to about
220 companies; positions, flows, valuation changes; income; data by
country
- a detailed annual BOP40 Survey to about 260 different companies;
same data requirements as BOP40Q
2.4 BOP Quarterly/Annual Collection
BOP Surveys to financial companies
- detailed quarterly survey forms sent to IFSC and non-IFSC enterprises;
data by country
- services, income,transfers data (for non-life insurance enterprises);
assets and liabilities data (positions, flows and valuation changes)
- surveys are essentially to end investors but institutional investors
included where appropriate
- smaller companies report same data annually
- target enterprise/activity coverage: 100% (full year)
2.5 BOP Quarterly/Annual Collection
Types of financial companies and related surveys
BOP30 Institutional investors incl. brokers - 40
BOP42 Non-life insurance/reinsurance incl. Captives - 250
BOP43 Life insurance/reinsurance incl. Captives - 95
BOP44 Group treasury - 50
BOP45 Asset finance companies, captive and agency treasury, service
providers (trustees, custodians, administrators, on own account) 760
2.6 BOP Quarterly/Annual Collection
Surveys conducted jointly with CBI
OFI1
CRS1
Investment funds (including Money Market Funds) - 2,800
Banks - 88
2.7 BOP Quarterly/Annual Collection
Quarterly inquiries to:
- Central Bank of Ireland (reserves, other assets and
liabilities incl. ‘Target’ balances; income)
- National Treasury Management Agency (positions,
transactions and income relating to foreign debt and
National Pensions Reserve Fund)
- National Asset Management Agency (positions,
transactions, fees and income)
3. Differences between FTS and BOP Merchandise
The main difference is due to treatment of Goods for Processing in BOP
statistics. This is because, in general, BOP is based on change of
ownership whereas FTS statistics are based on goods crossing
borders.
An example is where a company in Country A ships goods for processing
to country B and then sells them to another company in Country C.
Suppose the goods are valued at €100 when first shipped, the
processing cost is €500 and the mark-up when sold to Country C is
€200. The BOP Merchandise would record an export of €800 i.e.
100+500+200 whereas the FTS would record only €100. The BOP
services would record an import of services valued at €500.
Other smaller differences are due to estimates for smuggling, cross
border shopping etc.
4.1 BOP Quarterly/Annual Compilation
BOP results production

Requirements
 Quarterly publication/dissemination: 3 months (13 weeks)
after reference quarter
 Detailed components for ECB, EUROSTAT, IMF and OECD

Results analysis
 Results for internal individual and team analysis: during Week
9 for the overall survey aggregates; different ‘views’ of data;
‘drill down’ facility within BOPFACTS system
 Final corrections, adjustments, etc. in Weeks 10,11
 Results output from BOPFACTS in appropriate formats for
different users (IOs and national users)
4.2 BOP Quarterly/Annual Compilation
• BOP quarterly results dissemination
 Aim is to have all quarterly results available simultaneously
 ECB, Eurostat and OECD results prepared for 3-month
transmission deadline
 IMF results transmitted in 3 month deadline
 National publication (20 page release) data issued to meet
IMF’s SDDS 3-month deadline
4.3 IIP Compilation
IIP results production, publication and dissemination
 Quarterly stocks data compiled from stocks data returned and
reconciled with BOP flows
Results incl. country of counterpart detail supplied to ECB as input to
Euro area IIP results
 Results also supplied to IMF along with Co-ordinated
Portfolio Investment Survey (CPIS) geographical data
 IIP published quarterly (incl External Debt statistics)
 Annual IMF CPIS results published in August
4.4 Annual FDI Compilation
FDI results production, publication and dissemination
 Annual (end-December) stocks data compiled from data
returned; reconciliation with quarterly/annual FDI flows
 Annual results supplied to Eurostat with country and economic
activity (NACE Rev2) detail
 FDI annual flows and stocks results published nationally in
September with geographical and economic activity detail
 OECD supplied with results following confidentiality
suppressions used by Eurostat
4.5 International Trade in Services
Results included in quarterly BOP release for 11 different
Service groups
More detailed results published annually in September
giving detailed country breakdown and also cross
classifying type of service by main counterpart countries
4.6 Data confidentiality
Data confidentiality presenting increasing difficulty

Arises from very detailed analyses required
(classifications by nature of transaction, financial
instrument, institutional sector, country/region of
counterpart, NACE Rev2 activity, etc. )
Practical problems

Rules for identification and ‘flagging’

Checking of ‘confidential’ cells

Suppression of confidential information

Major resource burden
5. BOP and National Accounts
• BOP Current Account feeds into National
Accounts GDP and GNI results

National Accounts LCU and data consistency exercise
• Provide quarterly BOP and IIP data for
ROW sector of Financial Accounts (FA):

By instrument, by resident sector as far as possible
• Collect resident-resident positions and
transactions data for FA:

By instrument, by resident sector as far as possible
• Liaise on matters of mutual interest
6.1 Co-operation between BOP and CBI
• National Statistics Board established a CSO project to examine
the statistical potential of administrative records (SPAR) in
2003
• A number of public bodies were covered by the SPAR Project
(2004-2005), including the CBI
• One outcome of the examination of CBI and CSO data
collection was that there was significant duplication of effort
and a consequential burden on financial data providers (i.e.
financial enterprises) and on the two compilers
• One recommendation from the SPAR effort was that both
organisations should examine the possibility of reducing the
extent of duplicate collection and, where feasible, make
arrangements for a more efficient, value for money approach
6.2 Co-operation between BOP and CBI (contd.)
• As a result of the SPAR Project as well as the ECB requirement for
security-by-security reporting, in 2007, new arrangements were
introduced whereby the CBI collect quarterly data from banks and
investment funds and pass this micro data to CSO for processing
into BOP and IIP statistics (as well as meeting certain CBI statistical
requirements e.g. BIS data and OFI data); the reporting forms were
developed jointly by CSO/CBI
• This arrangement is currently being extended to FVCs and will be
further extended to cover the Insurance sector over the next few
years
• Meanwhile, the existing quarterly CSO surveys of financial
enterprises other than banks, investment funds and FVCs will
continue
• This new arrangement has resulted in a deepening of the cooperation between the CSO and the CBI
7. Further Developments
• Further develop joint collection arrangement to cover
other financial enterprises
• Prepare for the introduction of new international
statistical standards (BPM6, BMD4, SNA.Rev 1)
THE END
Thank you