Canada's balance of international payments and international investment position

the long version

Describes the statistical system used to produce Canada's balance of international payments and international investment position. Each of the accounts of these two statements is described in terms of concepts, data sources, methods and products. The Canadian practice is related to international standards. The publication concludes with a discussion of future challenges to maintain and enhance this statistical system. An extensive glossary is included. Some historical perspective is provided, notably in the Appendices where a summary of time series is provided along with a chronology of events that affected Canada's external sector over the last half of the XXth century. A description of the foundation of statistics is essential to help users in assessing the quality of data.