Other Direct Investment Topics

The Recommended Treatment of Selected Direct Investment Transactions

Classification of Financial Derivatives Involving Affiliated Enterprises in the Balance of Payments Statistics and the International Investment Position (IIP) Statement (231 kb PDF file), 2002

Foreign Direct Investment Statistics: How Countries Measure FDI

Foreign Direct Investment Trends and Statistics (paper for Executive Board seminar)

Foreign Direct Investment Trends and Statistics: A Summary (paper for Executive Board seminar)

Other Selected Publications and Documents

See Also:

Balance of Payments Home Page

Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board (DSBB): metadata on SDDS and GDDS data categories

External Debt Statistics: debt data, conference on capital flows and debt statistics, final draft Guide for Compilers and Users, and other selected publications

Direct Investment Methodology: Forms

Form Used in 1997 SIMSDI Survey and 2001 Update
(Use the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the pdf file.)

At its October 1996 meeting, the IMF Committee on Balance of Payments Statistics (the Committee) supported a joint Fund/OECD survey of Fund and OECD member countries to determine the extent to which countries had adopted the international standards for foreign direct investment (FDI) statistics. Following consultation with the members of the Committee and the OECD Working Party on Financial Statistics regarding the design of the survey form, the IMF and OECD launched the survey in May 1997.

The survey form was designed as a multiple choice questionnaire. This design was intended to reduce, as much as possible, the time required by compilers to complete the form, while covering the major issues regarding data sources, collection methods, and dissemination and methodological practices for FDI statistics. It was understood that the multiple choice design meant that uncommon practices might not always be explicitly reported. Therefore, room was provided for comments throughout the survey form.

The survey form was sent to 171 IMF member countries (of which 29 were also OECD member countries) and contained 130 questions. The form was made available in the English, French, Spanish and Russian languages to ensure a higher response rate and to facilitate the comprehension of the questions, thus improving the quality of responses.

The same form was used for the 2001 update of the survey and was sent to 61 of the countries that had participated in the 1997 SIMSDI survey.

The form being used for the end-2003 SIMSDI survey reflects the experience gained from the 1997 survey and 2001 update and incorporates changes in the methodology for compiling FDI that have been introduced since 1997. A copy of the 2003 survey form is expected to be posted on this website in early 2004.