The quality of the geographical breakdown in the balance of payments and related statistics (such as international trade in goods, trade in services and foreign direct investment (FDI) statistics) can be assessed by means of comparisons with mirror data in order to assess bilateral asymmetries....

Global trade imbalances narrowed in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. They have remained at a lower level but are still of concern to policy makers because of the risks they pose to individual economies, as well as globally. However, the ultimate causes of these imbalances are not...

Over recent years, several euro area countries have registered large and persistent net foreign liabilities. This paper examines the risks arising from these external stock imbalances, the prospects for their smooth unwinding and the menu of policy options. The paper demonstrates that external...