CBBH produced quarterly report on international investment position for BH

Sarajevo, December 30, 2019

The Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina (CBBH) has produced and published a report on the quarterly international investment position for Bosnia and Herzegovina. The published data cover the period from 2007 to the third quarter of this year.        

The International Investment Position (IIP) is a part of macroeconomic statistics that, at a given date, shows the value of the total financial assets claimed by residents of BH from non-residents and liabilities of residents of BH relative to the rest of the world. The difference between the assets and the liabilities represents the net position. The main components of financial assets and liabilities in the statement of international investment position are direct investment, portfolio investment, financial derivatives and other investments (currency and deposits, loans, trade credits, etc.), with the assets including reserve assets. 

According to the published data, the net financial position for BH at the end of the third quarter of 2019 was negative and amounted to -14.29 billion KM, which is by 2.25% less than at the end of the previous year. The negative position is characteristic of transition countries, when the domestic economy relies on capital inflows from abroad for its growth. The decrease in the net financial deficit is a result of higher growth of assets abroad than growth of liabilities of BH economy. 

This statistics has been developed through the implementation of the IPA 2015 EU Twinning project, in which CBBH statisticians cooperated and received expert assistance from experts from Denmark and Finland. The implementation of this IPA EU project aims at harmonizing the standards applied in the CBBH for the compilation and dissemination of statistics with the standards applied in the EU, all with the aim of meeting the requirements of BH convergence in the EU. 

By introducing a quarterly report on the international investment position, instead of the annual one, BH has fulfilled the EU condition regarding the frequency of reporting on the country's international investment position, as well as the standards applied in compiling it, so the conditions have been met for its regular submission to Eurostat. The details on quarterly movements of financial assets and liabilities for BH, their components and net positions can be found on the CBBH statistical portal.