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1993 SNA Update Information - Country comments for issue:
Assets, liabilities and personal effects of individuals changing residence ("migrant transfers")

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The flows of goods and changes in the financial account arising from a change in residence of individuals are treated as imputed transactions in the Balance of Payments Manual. These flows are offset in the capital account by capital transfers called migrants’ transfers. The 1993 SNA is not explicit on the treatment of these flows . Since no change in ownership occur, Should the changes in financial claims and liabilities due to change in residence of individuals be treated as reclassification in other changes in volume account?
Country comments
Number of country comments for selected issue:32
  Date postedSourceComment
 10/10/2006SwedenAgreement with proposal
 9/15/2006United KingdomWe agree with all the recommendations made by the AEG.
 9/15/2006United KingdomWe agree with all the recommendations made by the AEG.
 9/15/2006LatviaAfter deep discussions and expert consultations we basically support the 1993 SNA Update IssAfter deep discussions and expert consultations we basically support the 1993 SNA Update Issues.ues.
 7/28/2006LithuaniaIn general we support the recommendations.
 2/23/2006South African Reserve Bank We agree with the AEG accepted recommendations.
 1/27/2006Central Bank of El SalvadorLa recomendación de reclasificarlo en la cuenta de otros cambios de volumen es acertada ya que definirlo como transacción supone un intercambio entre unidades institucionales, pero en este caso solo se sucede un cambio en el estatus de residencia de los "migrantes" y no hay un intercambio entre residentes con no residentes.
 1/17/2006Central Bank of West African States cb_WesternAfricanStates38b;
 1/17/2006Central Bank of Chile cbChile38b;
 12/22/2005Serbia and MontenegroWe agree with the suggested changes.
 12/14/2005FranceL'INSEE soutient la recommandation consistant à ignorer les flux de biens lies aux changements de résidence et à traiter les mouvements affectant les actifs/passifs en autres changements de volume des actifs.
 12/13/2005CanadaCanada agrees that migrants’ financial claims and liabilities should be treated as reclassification of assets on the other volume changes in assets account.
 12/12/2005Bank of KoreaWe are in agreement with all the recommendations of AEG.
 12/9/2005RussiaRosstat largely supports the recommendations on the updating 1993 SNA, made at the July 2005 meeting of the Advisory Expert Group on National Accounts.
 12/6/2005Central Bank of NorwayThe Central Bank of Norway supports the recommendations for migrants’ transfers thus implying a change in the BPM from capital transfers to other changes in volume for the migrants’ assets and liabilities and that this is made consistent with the SNA.
 12/5/2005DenmarkAgreement
 12/2/2005NetherlandsWe generally support the recommendations of the AEG.
 12/2/2005AustraliaAustralia agrees with the recommendations concerning households, as a migrant 'disappears' from one economic territory and 'appears' in another with all of his/her assets. Hence, it would seem that the change in residence of migrants' assets are best reflected as other changes in volume of assets.
 12/2/2005TurkeyWe agree with the recommendations made at the July 2005 meeting of the Advisory Expert Group on National Accounts.
 12/1/2005NorwayWe agree with the AEG's recommendations.
 12/1/2005BrazilWe endorse the AEG decisions in the Bangkok meeting.
 12/1/2005IsraelWe disagree with the recommendations for registration of assets, liabilities and personal effects of individuals changing residence. These items are substantial in our country, and we think the suggested treatment would lead to distortions. In our view, for national accounts purposes, it only makes sense to treat an individual before and after the change of residence as two distinct units, as would be done for an enterprise moving from one country to another.
In our view, the treatment of movement of personal effects should be similar to the treatment of used government equipment sent to abroad – that is: deducted from private expenditure in the country of origin and added to the country’s exports. In the accounts of the new country there should be imports of such personal effects, and private consumption expenditure by the new residents. Otherwise the country of origin may have too large a consumption expenditure and the new country too small an expenditure. Likewise the registration of transfers of money outside the balance of payments will lead to strange results. If for example an immigrant leaves large assets abroad, and nothing will be registered in the balance of payments (only in the IIP), when residence is changed, then when money transferred from the account at a later period, the flow may seem unexplained and lead to distortion of the balance of payments.
Of course, it might be useful for analytical purposes to register the various items linked to migration separately. It should also be recommended to add clarifications to the SNA, since migration has become more common.
 12/1/2005National Bank of MoldovaGiven the fact that there are no ownership changes for the personal effects accompanying migrants while they change residence, it is acceptable not to register these flows of goods as exports and imports in balance of payments statistics. No contra-entry in “capital transfers” will be put.
Regarding the movement of financial assets we consider that the flows should be recorded based on the migrant’s residence at the time the transaction occurs.
We suppose that this treatment could be applied also to the economic units changing their residence.
 12/1/2005United KingdomWe agree with the AEG accepted recommendations. From the summary conclusions it wasn't clear what the decision was on the second question in recommendation (b). We think that they should be recorded in the other changes in volume of assets.
 11/30/2005Slovak RepublicSO SR agree with AEG recommendations.
 11/30/2005Croatian National BankCroatian National Bank agree with the AEG recommendations.
 11/30/2005ItalyIstat fully agrees with the recommendations made at the July 2005 meeting of the Advisory Expert Group on National Accounts.
 11/30/2005National Bank of the Republic of MacedoniaWe agree with the recommendations of the AEG. Regarding the goods component, since there is no change in ownership, we think that these should be excluded from the exports and imports. Regarding the financial flows, the counterparty of the financial account can be in current transfers, as proposed.
 11/30/2005State Bank of PakistanWe have gone through recommendations made by Advisory Expert Group (AEG) and fully agree with them.
 11/29/2005National Bank of KazakhstanSince moving migrants from one country to another does not cause actual change of ownership we deem it is acceptable to not refer migrants’ transfers to the capital account as well as to eliminate migrants’ personal effects from trade data and record migrants financial operations based on the migrants residence at the moment of conducting transaction. However, on our opinion it is necessary to specify which data sources and methods could be applied to separate assets and liabilities of migrants.
Accordingly we suppose it is acceptable to use this approach in cases related to the economic units changing their residence.
To reconsile SNA and BPM nessesary amendments should be added to relevant paragraphs.
We suppose that alternative approach to record keeping of migrants personal effects and financial operations is not acceptable as in this case ownership rule is not kept.
 11/29/2005People's Bank of ChinaI agree with your improvements and have no other suggestions.
 11/21/2005USAWe agree with the recommendations of the AEG.
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