## BPTT Fourth Meeting (November 30, 2021)

## Source details

**Canonical URL:** [BPTT Fourth Meeting (November 30, 2021)](https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/data/statistics/bpm6/bptt/bptt-fourth-meeting-minutes-november-30-2021.pdf)

## Other formats

- [Markdown version](/-/media/files/data/statistics/bpm6/bptt/bptt-fourth-meeting-minutes-november-30-2021.pdf.md)
- [Structured JSON version](/-/media/files/data/statistics/bpm6/bptt/bptt-fourth-meeting-minutes-november-30-2021.pdf.json)

---

### Introduction
- The fourth meeting of the Balance of Payments Task Team (BPTT) was conducted virtually on November 30, 2021.
- Mr. Carlos Sánchez-Muñoz, Assistant Director of the IMF Statistics Department and Chief of the Balance of Payments Division, chaired the meeting.
- Meeting objectives stated by the Chair:
  - Present the outcomes of the IMF’s Committee on Balance of Payments Statistics meeting conducted in October.
  - Agree on the work plan of the BPTT for the next three/four months.
- New BPTT members welcomed:
  - Ms. Annabelle Mourougane (OECD).
  - Messrs Jannick Damgaard (IMF Statistics Department) and Cyril Rebillard (IMF Research Department).

### Topics presented and summary discussions
- Presentations and materials covered:
  - Summary of Discussions (SOD) of the Committee’s Thirty-Seventh Meeting (October 26–November 1, 2021).
  - Proposed timeline for preparation/review of BPTT Guidance Notes (GNs) and reviewing GNs from other Task Teams (TTs).
  - Process for the holistic review of the BPM6 update.
  - BPTT GN B.2 “Standardized Statistical Definition of Net International Reserves (NIR)”.
- Committee meeting structure noted:
  - Two distinct meeting types held during October 26–November 1: (i) Committee only sessions (October 27, 28, and November 1) and (ii) Joint sessions of the Committee and the Advisory Expert Group on National Accounts (AEG) (October 26, 29, and November 1).
- Outcomes from Committee-only sessions (October 27, 28, November 1):
  - Eight GNs were discussed covering BPTT, CMTT, IETT, IFTT, GZTT (G.5 and G.9), and the IMF “Note on the Process for Holistic Review of BPM6 Update Priorities”.
  - GN B.6 “Sustainable Finance: Integrating Measures of Climate Change Risk into External Sector Statistics” was approved.
  - Other GNs were presented for preliminary discussion and to seek inputs from the Committee.
- Outcomes from joint AEG/Committee sessions (October 26, 29, November 1):
  - Seven GNs prepared by the CATT, DITT, FITT, and GZTT (G.1 and G.2) were discussed and approved.
- Use of approved GNs:
  - Approved GNs will be part of the proposed annotated outline of BPM7 with suggested modifications and, in some cases, after a final review of the Committee.
- Clarification note on “Treatment of Negative Equity”:
  - Will follow the usual procedure and be circulated to the AEG and the Committee simultaneously for discussion and approval via written procedure.
  - Global consultation may be skipped because it concerns clarification of current guidance rather than a new concept; however, global consultation could be considered if felt necessary.
  - Drafting will involve Government Finance Statistics (GFS) compilers to present their perspective.
- BPTT work program and timeline for GN review ahead of March 2022 joint AEG/Committee meeting:
  - Seven GNs from the FITT and one GN each from BPTT and GZTT are expected to come for BPTT review during December 2021/January 2022.
  - GNs from CMTT, IETT, and IFTT are likely to be circulated for BPTT review.
  - Given the end of year vacation period, GN reviews will be sequenced to consider members’ workloads and prioritized for the March 2022 meeting.
  - For GNs to be discussed at the March 2022 meeting, the BPTT review exercise is likely to be completed by around third week of January 2022 to allow time for global consultation of four-week duration to follow.
  - The Committee Secretariat will have until the first week of March to circulate the GNs together with each respective summary of the outcome of global consultation to Committee members.
- Holistic review process for the BPM6 update:
  - The Committee supported guiding principles for prioritization and the proposed three buckets to distinguish mandatory from supplementary requirements:
    - Bucket (i): Recommendations to be included in BPM7.
    - Bucket (ii): Recommendations to remain on the Committee’s research agenda for future work (and to be mentioned as such in BPM7).
    - Bucket (iii): Recommendations not to be included in BPM7, either removed from the research agenda, or possibly requested to be included in other relevant manuals.
  - The Committee underscored importance of incorporating user needs/views on proposed changes and suggested a global consultation targeting compilers and users before the Committee’s discussion.
  - The IMF will prepare a summary paper with the main changes proposed to be incorporated into BPM7 — including the results of the global consultation survey — for decision at an ad-hoc Committee meeting to be held after March at a date to be announced.
- GN B.2 “Standardized Statistical Definition of Net International Reserves (NIR)”:
  - Proposed standardized definition of NIR to be introduced in BPM7: gross reserve assets (RA) minus short-term foreign currency drains (FCD).
  - Definition details:
    - Gross reserves follow the BPM6 definition.
    - Short-term FCD are the contractual currency obligations (to residents and non-residents) scheduled to come due 12 months ahead, as defined in the International Reserves and Foreign Currency Liquidity (IRFCL) Template (Section II).
  - Rationale and caveats:
    - The definition provides a starting point for reserve adequacy assessments and Fund program design while recognizing the need to consider country specifics and program monitoring needs.
  - Next steps:
    - The GN will be sent to IMF Management for information and subsequently circulated for BPTT review.

### Actions
- No action required.

### Attendees
- IMF: Carlos Sánchez-Muñoz (Chair), Padma Hurree-Gobin and Venkat Josyula (Secretariat), Gustavo Adler, Jannick Damgaard, Sagé de Clerck, Hector Hernandez, Cyril Rebillard, Jennifer Ribarsky, and Niamh Sheridan
- ECB: Olga Monteiro
- Eurostat: Lena Frej-Ohlsson
- OECD: Annabelle Mourougane
- UNSD: Herman Smith
- Country representatives: Amanda Seneviratne (Australia), Fernando Rocha (Brazil), Eric Boulay (Canada), Hu Hong (China), Ursula Schipper (Germany), Fabienne Fortanier (Netherlands), Robert Pupynin (Russia), Paul Farello (USA), and Wilson Phiri (Zambia)

---


_Source: https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/data/statistics/bpm6/bptt/bptt-fourth-meeting-minutes-november-30-2021.pdf_