Press room

Balance of Payments

• Since tourists from the euro area no longer need to change currency, how can we find out about revenues, payments and balances from tourism in Spain's balance of payments?

  Since the physical introduction of the euro in January 2002, no information has been available about the exchange of banknotes in the various currencies that joined the euro in order to produce data on revenues and payments from tourism in the balance of payments. However, the Banco de España continues to receive information about tourism expenditure made through transfers (primarily payments through travel agencies) and credit cards, as well as those corresponding to the exchange of foreign banknotes in currencies that have not joined the euro. To estimate the contribution of tourist expenditure previously paid in currencies from the euro area, the Banco de España uses the tourism sector information provided by the Institute of Tourism Studies and the INE as indicators.

• Why do the figures in the trade balance of the balance of payments differ from the foreign trade data for Spain, which is reported by the Department of Customs and Excise of the State Tax Revenue Service?

  The main information used for calculating commercial transactions within the Spanish balance of payments is foreign trade data. However, the balance of payments uses the methodology established by the International Monetary Fund, and therefore records imports according to their FOB value (in other words, excluding the cost of freight and insurance to the Spanish border), while the foreign trade data imports are recorded by their CIF value, (in other words including the cost of freight and insurance to the border). This difference does not occur with exports, since the two sources record transactions according to their FOB value.

  In addition, this methodology means the balance of payments must include not only the purchase and sale of goods that enter and leave the economic territory (which are those included in the foreign trade statistics), but also transactions in which there is no entry or exit, for example sales of fuel and other supplies to foreign means of transport in Spain, or to Spanish means of transport abroad.

  Therefore, although the trade balance data and foreign trade data for Spain should reflect similar patterns, their absolute results differ.

• Do charges and payments to non-Spanish residents who are residents of the euro area have to be declared to the Banco de España? And if so, do transactions made in euros also have to be declared? How are such declarations made?

  The obligation to declare foreign transactions applies equally to those carried out with residents of countries in the Monetary Union and people from the rest of the world. Such obligations also apply equally regardless of the currency in which the transactions take place.

  You can find details about these obligations in the section headed “Electronic Office of the Banco de España” on this website.