World Tables Variables

BALANCE OF PAYMENTS

Comprises all transactions involving a change of ownership of goods and services between residents of a country and the rest of the world. It includes merchandise, nonfactor services, and factor services.
Merchandise, f.o.b.: Comprises the market value of movable goods, including nonmonetary gold. It also includes the market value of related distributive services up to the customs frontier of the exporting economy, that is, f.o.b. (free on board) value. The few types of goods that are not covered by the merchandise account include travelers' purchases abroad, which are included in travel, and purchases of goods by diplomatic and military personnel, which are classified under other official goods, services, and income.
Nonfactor services: Comprises shipment, passenger and other transport services, and travel, as well as current account transactions not separately reported (e.g., not classified as merchandise, nonfactor services, or transfers). These include transactions with nonresidents by government agencies and their personnel abroad, and also transactions by private residents with foreign governments and government personnel stationed in the reporting country.
Factor services: Comprises services of labor and capital, thus covering income from direct investment abroad, interest, dividends, and property and labor income.
Long-term interest: Comprises interest on the disbursed portion of outstanding public and private loans repayable in foreign currencies, goods, or services. It may include commitment charges on undisbursed loans.
Private current transfers, net: Comprises net transfer paymentsÑbetween private persons and nonofficial organizations of the reporting country and the rest of the worldÑthat carry no provisions for repayments. Included are workers' remittances; transfers by migrants; gifts, dowries, and inheritances; and alimony and other support remittances.
Workers' remittances: Comprises remittances of income by migrants who have come to an economy to stay for a year or more and who are employed by their new economy, where they are considered to be residents.
Current account balance before official transfers: Comprises the sum of the net exports of goods and nonfactor services, net factor service income, and net private transfers.
Net official transfers: Comprises net transfer payment between governments of the reporting country and the rest of the world.
Current account balance after official transfers: Comprises the sum of the net exports of goods and nonfactor services, net factor service income, and net transfers; official capital grants are always included.
Long-term capital net: Comprises changes, apart from valuation adjustments in residents' long-term foreign liabilities less their long-term assets, excluding any long-term items classified as reserves.
Direct investment: Comprises all capital transactions that are made to acquire a lasting interest in an enterprise operating in an economy other than that of the investor, where the investor's purpose is to have an effective voice in the management of the enterprise. Direct investment includes items such as equity capital, reinvestment of earnings, and other long- and short-term capital.
Long-term loans: Comprises all public, publicly guaranteed, and private nonguaranteed loans that have an original or extended maturity of more than a year and that are repayable in foreign currencies, goods, or services. These data are as reported in the Bank's Debtor Reporting System and accord with the stock data on external debt, discussed below.
Disbursements: Comprises the total amounts drawn on public, publicly guaranteed, and private nonguaranteed loans, net of commitment cancellations.
Repayments: Comprises repayments (amortization) of the principal of public, publicly guaranteed, and private nonguaranteed loans.
Other long-term capital: Comprises the difference between long-term capital, as defined above, and the similar item reported in IMF balance of payments statistics.
Other capital,net: Comprises the sum of short-term capital, net errors and omissions, and capital transactions not included elsewhere.
Change inreserves: Comprises the net change in a country's holdings of international reserves resulting from transactions on the current and capital accounts. These include changes in holdings of monetary gold, SDRs, reserve position in the Fund, foreign exchange assets, and other claims on nonresidents that are available to the central authority. The measure is net of liabilities constituting foreign authorities' reserves, and counterpart items for valuation of monetary gold and SDRs, which are reported separately in IMF sources.
Conversion factor (annual average): Is the annual average of market exchange rates for countries quoting rates in units of national currency per US dollar. (See Sources and Methods for details of additional conversion factors.)