METHODOLOGICAL GUIDE FOR COMPILING THE BALANCE OF PAYMENTS AND INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT POSITION IN ECOWAS MEMBER STATES
This document entitled “Regional Methodological Guide for Compiling the Balance of Payments and International Investment Position in ECOWAS Member Countries” is a set of practical modalities for the compilation of annual balance of payments and international investment position statistics in ECOWAS Member States. In this regard, the Guide seeks to provide practical advice on the collection and compilation of statistics. It also reviews major innovations in the 6th edition of the IMF Manuel, changes made and standard components as well as best practices at the regional level. Finally, the Guide proposes a harmonized framework for the compilation of the balance of payments and international investment position in ECOWAS Member States. It should be noted that the Guide was adopted by the Committee of Governors of Central Banks of ECOWAS Member States at its 46th Ordinary Session held in Dakar, Senegal on 30 June 2014.
The preparation of this document is in line with the process of statistical harmonization, which is a key component of the Roadmap under the ECOWAS Monetary Cooperation Programme (EMCP). This Roadmap emphasizes the need to consolidate macroeconomic convergence and fast-track policy harmonization, including statistical harmonization.
It is in this spirit that WAMA developed, in collaboration with the ECOWAS Commission, a programme aimed at harmonizing external account statistics. The objective of this programme is to harmonize the methodologies used for compilation of BOP and IIP in the region, in accordance with the 6th Edition of the IMF Manual. This approach was intended to enhance the quality and comparability of BOP statistics.
Following the launching of the programme in April 2011, resource persons and representatives from the ECOWAS Commission and WAMA conducted circular missions in all the ECOWAS member States. Based on the information gathered during these missions, the team prepared three documents. The first document focused on the extensive diagnosis of current practices, particularly in terms of methodology, data sources and data collection. The second document dealt with a scheme aimed at harmonization of the relevant imperatives. The third document proposed a timeline for achieving the desired harmonization. The Regional Experts Committee, comprising representatives from Central Banks of ECOWAS member States and regional institutions, reviewed these documents in March 2012 and identified a number of activities to be implemented in the period 2012-2016. After the meeting, various activities identified were shared between WAMA and the ECOWAS Commission for coordination purposes.
Under the foregoing arrangement WAMA was mandated to develop a Methodological Guide for compilation of BOP and IIP statistics for ECOWAS member States. This Guide was developed with the assistance of international Experts, under the supervision of WAMA. It is based on the diagnostic study prepared by ECOWAS resource persons on prevailing practices in member
countries in terms of compilation of external accounts, especially in terms of institutional arrangement, data sources, data processing methods as well as data compilation and dissemination methods. During the course of its preparation, WAMA benefitted from the technical support of the Regional Committee of Experts and the IMF Department of Statistics. The relevant workshops were organized in collaboration with the ECOWAS Commission.
With the publication of this important document, I would like to register my profound appreciation and gratitude to all the Experts and institutions that contributed, directly or indirectly, to the development of this document. I finally wish to indicate that this Guide could contribute to improving data quality and comparability as well as the production of reliable external accounts in the region. I therefore recommend it as a valuable tool to persons responsible for compilation of BOP and IIP statistics in ECOWAS member States.
Professor Mohamed Ben Omar NDIAYE
Director General
West African Monetary Agency