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The BOPS Yearbook, usually published in December, contains balance of payments statistics for most of the world, compiled in accordance with the IMF's Balance of Payments Manual. Part 1 includes aggregate as well as detailed information in the form of analytical and standard component presentations for countries. Part 2 provides tables of data, featuring area and world totals of balance of payments components and aggregates. Part 3 presents descriptions of methodologies, compilation practices, and data sources used by individual member countries in compiling their balance of payments and international investment position statistics.

This paper examines the linkages between key macroeconomic statistics: external debt, balance of payments, government finance, and monetary statistics, which enable analysts and policy makers to monitor economic developments. The paper reviews statistical compilation issues and concludes that, while considerable progress has been made in recent years to account for external debt and related flows, further progress must be made. It makes recommendations, such as improved communication among compilers of related statistics, that may help compilers to achieve greater consistency between statistics concerned and thereby enhancing their usefulness for analysts and policy makers. The need for increased resources to develop statistical systems is also recognized.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Donors have suspended some aid disbursements to Malawi in response to a scandal involving the theft of public funds. A group of public servants exploited weaknesses in the control environment of the government's Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) to make fraudulent payments to several entities that had not provided any goods or services to the government. The authorities are implementing an Action Plan of remedial measures to prevent the recurrence of the fraud. Key elements of the action plan include strengthening security and management of IFMIS, a forensic audit, and identifying and prosecuting the perpetrators of the fraud. Recovery is underway in many sectors of the economy, facilitated by increased availability of foreign exchange. This reflects the impact of policy reforms, including a strong response to exchange rate adjustment from the tobacco sector and re-established external credit lines. Inflation is falling, although more slowly than programmed. Performance in relation to quantitative targets for the third ECF review (March test date) was good, but weakened for the fourth review (September test date). There was significant fiscal slippage (excessive domestic borrowing) during July-September 2013. This constrained the room for substituting domestic borrowing for the shortfall in aid flows. There has been progress in implementing structural benchmarks, but at a slower pace than programmed. Discussions focused on managing the fall-out from the fiscal scandal and policies to reverse the fiscal slippage and lower inflation. A substantial decrease in aid receipts for the remainder of the fiscal year necessitated some reprioritization of spending plans as well as expenditure cuts. Fiscal and monetary policy need to be tightened to lower inflation pressures and safeguard international reserves. Staff supports the authorities' requests for waivers based on corrective actions and policy commitments. The authorities are implementing strong corrective actions to address the fraud and fiscal slippage, including several prior actions, and have also strengthened external debt management to ensure that they observe their commitment not to contract nonconcessional external debt. Staff further supports the requests for extension of the arrangement, rephasing of disbursements (including a halving of the disbursements originally associated with the third and fourth reviews and applying the balance to an additional review) and modifications of performance criteria.

This paper examines the usefulness of testing the conformity of macroeconomic data with Benford's law as indicator of data quality. Most of the macroeconomic data series tested conform with Benford's law. However, questions emerge on the reliability of such tests as indicators of data quality once conformity with Benford's law is contrasted with the data quality ratings included in the data module of the Reports on the Observance of Standards and Codes (data ROSCs). Furthermore, the analysis shows that rejection of Benford's law may be unrelated to the quality of statistics, and instead may result from marked structural shifts in the data series. Hence, nonconformity with Benford's law should not be interpreted as a reliable indication of poor quality in macroeconomic data.

The relevance of the standard measures of international transactions in goods and services as reflected in the fifth edition of the IMF \"Balance of Payments Manual (BPM)\" and in the 1993 System of National Accounts \"(SNA)\" has been questioned in several recent studies and articles. Alternative measures have been proposed, that either (i) substitute an ownership basis for transactions for the long-established residency basis; (ii) maintain the residency basis but combine net direct investment income with goods and services; or question the validity of any measures in the form of net balances as a guide to policy. This paper affirms the central role of residency in the international accounts, discusses the supplementary value of alternative proposals, and notes the importance of international efforts to improve and refine the measurement of external transactions based on the principles of the \"BPM\" and \"SNA.\"

There are more than 215 million international migrants in the world. Recorded remittances received by developing countries, estimated to be US$325 billion in 2010, far exceed the volume of official aid flows and constitute more than 10 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in many developing countries. Migration and remittances factbook 2011 provides a comprehensive picture of emigration, skilled emigration, immigration, and remittance flows for 210 countries and 15 country groups, drawing on authoritative, publicly available data. The current edition of the factbook updates the information in the popular 2008 edition with additional data for 71 countries collected from various sources, including national censuses, labor force surveys, population registers, and other national sources. In addition, it provides selected socioeconomic characteristics such as population, labor force, age dependency ratio, gross national income (GNI) per capita, and poverty headcount for each country and regional grouping. More frequent and timely monitoring of migration and remittance trends can provide policy makers, researchers, and the development community with the tools to make informed decisions. The factbook makes an important contribution to this effort by providing the latest available data and facts on migration and remittance trends worldwide in a comprehensive and readily accessible format.