Errors and omissions

Definition

The errors and omissions item in the Balance of Payments is defined as the difference between total credits and total debits, and it arises from the inability to capture exact information on all transactions conducted between an economy and the rest of the world. It can be calculated as the difference between the financial account balance and the current and capital account balance.

Further information

The errors and omissions item is not, therefore, an item of the current account, the capital account, or the financial account. If it is positive, it means that one or a combination of the following circumstances apply: undervaluation of the receipts in the current and capital accounts, undervaluation of the net change in liabilities in the financial account, overvaluation of the payments in the current and capital accounts, overvaluation of the net change in assets in the financial account. The opposite would apply to a negative sign.