Balance of Payments and International Investment Position

A new table, 17.30, has been included in order to provide information on the net external debt of Spain. Complying with international standards set in the SDDS agreements, the Bank of Spain was already spreading quarterly data of gross external debt in the page dedicated to the statistics of the external sector (table External debt. Two recent quarters) and in the Economic Indicators, table 7.9. This new table aims, firstly, to disseminate information on the net external debt, in addition to the gross one, and, secondly, to put into perspective the previous data when compared with other measures of foreign debt such as international investment position liabilities and the net international investment position (when it is negative). Recall that the external debt consists of the financial instruments included in the international investment position with the exception of those relating to equity (equity securities and investment fund shares), financial derivatives and gold bullion. In the charts accompanying the table, the sign on the net external debt has been reversed to ease a direct comparison with the net international investment position.