The main changes introduced by the BPM6

Current account

The BPM6 lays down that the exclusive criterion for recording international merchandise trade is the transfer of ownership and removes some exceptions to this principle included in the previous edition of the manual. This gives rise to the following innovations, which have effects on the distinction between trade in goods and trade in services without, however, having a significant impact on the current account balance:

• a change to the treatment of goods that cross the frontier for processing without change of ownership; these goods are no longer included in the gross flows of imported and exported goods. Instead the performance of just the service of processing is included among services;
• net exports of goods through merchanting transactions - the purchase by an Italian operator of goods from a non-resident operator and the subsequent resale of the same goods (usually with the achievement of a profit) to another non-resident operator without the goods physically crossing the Italian frontier - are recorded as trade in goods and no longer included among services.

The services account now includes indirectly measured financial intermediation services - banks' margin, not deriving from explicit commissions, on transactions that can be linked to loans and deposits - and the flows related to trade in patents and licenses that derive from to R&D; insurance and pension services are recorded separately.

Income is divided into primary income, deriving directly from work, financial assets and natural resources, and secondary income, relating to distribution. The items previously accounted for as current transfers are included in income, mostly secondary income.

Financial account and international investment position

The sign convention that traditionally characterized the financial account has been abandoned: positive (negative) value on the assets side now indicate an increase (reduction) of assets, as was already the case on the liabilities side. The balance on the financial account is therefore obtained as the difference between flows of assets and flows of liabilities.

The financial account and the international investment position provide for greater detail and adopt a new classification of institutional sectors and instruments, harmonized with ESA 2010.

In direct investment there is a different accounting treatment of so-called reverse investment, i.e. of the assets a resident firm that is the object of direct investment holds in the non-resident investing firm (and analogously of the liabilities a resident investing firm holds vis-à-vis the non-resident firm that is the object of direct investment). Such assets and liabilities, which had previously led to a reduction of the direct investment (directional principle) are now accounted for on a gross basis (asset-liability principle); the effect on the financial account balance and the international investment position is nil.

Special Drawing Rights (international reserve assets created by the IMF), which were previously included in the international investment position only on the assets side (among the official reserves), are now also recorded as liabilities of the central bank, for the part assigned to Italy.