Definition
In the context of Balance of Payments statistics, International Investment Position, and Financial Accounts, flows reflect the creation, transformation, exchange, transfer, or extinction of economic value and imply changes in the value of the assets or liabilities of an institutional unit.
Further information
Flows include:
- financial transactions
- changes in the value of financial assets and liabilities due to the evolution of their prices or the exchange rates of the currencies in which they are denominated
- other volume changes (reclassifications or unilateral debt cancellations, for example)
Accumulated flows over a period help explain the changes in the position between the initial and final dates of that period.
In the following table, you can find an example of the decomposition of changes in the position between two periods for the national economy according to the Financial Accounts:
Link between the financial balance sheet at the beginning and the end of period.
References
Update date: January 2025
