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New data sources for statistics on securities

In connection with the publication of the second quarter 2021, the Balance of Payments and National Accounts will transition to new data sources and methods of compiling statistics on debt securities, shares and funds. This will lead to a reduced respondent burden, improved quality and fewer discrepancies between Balance of Payments and the National Accounts.

The data that will be replaced concerns statistics on securities, which will be collected from the database on securities holdings (VINN) and the Swedish securities database (SVDB) rather than as before, through separate collections.

Expanding use of VINN and SVDB in the Balance of Payments and the National Accounts will reduce the respondent burden and increase the quality of the statistics. The transition to these data sources was introduced in connection with the publication of the second quarter of 2021 and will continue to be implemented in coming publications.

All changes in the Balance of Payments are made following decisions by the Riksbank, the authority responsible for the statistics. Changes in the National Accounts are decided by Statistics Sweden and are communicated to the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority, which is the agency responsible for statistics on the Financial Accounts.

Microdata replaces aggregated collection of statistics

The changes to be introduced, with a few exceptions, deal with all statistics concerning Swedish and foreign securities. Going forward, the statistics will be based, to a large extent, on microdata from the VINN and SVDB databases. The new microdata sources and methods of calculation will entail a decreased respondent burden, as the number of enterprises and authorities that need to submit data to Statistics Sweden will decrease and duplicate data collection of similar data can be avoided. In more detail, this means:

Foreign securities

The balance from VINN will be introduced for the second quarter of 2021 for shares, funds and debt securities. Transaction data from VINN will be introduced in conjunction with the publication of the third quarter of 2021.

In addition to the changes listed above, which apply to both the Balance of Payments and the National Accounts, some changes will be implemented that apply only to the Balance of Payments. These changes are:

Swedish debt securities

The balances from VINN and SVDB will be introduced for the second quarter of 2021. Transactions from VINN and SVDB will be implemented in conjunction with the publication of the third quarter of 2021.

Swedish shares

The same source as before, Statistics Sweden’s shareholder statistics, will be used for balances. Transactions from the National Accounts’ calculations have been implemented as from the first quarter of 2021.

Swedish funds

The same source as before, Statistics Sweden’s fund statistics, will be used for balances. Transactions from fund statistics will be introduced in conjunction with the publication of the third quarter of 2021.

What does this mean for the statistics?

The assessment is that use of the VINN and SVDB databases will improve the quality of the statistics with regard to the degree of coverage and in the long term, as well as the degree of detail in the portfolio investments.

The new data source, VINN, consists of quarterly data, which means that previously published monthly statistics will be published on a quarterly basis, going forward. The final monthly publication will refer to June and will be published in August.

The time series on portfolio investments will differ from the previous time series, once the balances from the new data source, VINN, have been implemented. This will lead to a break in the time series between the first and second quarter of 2021.

Comparisons between the Balance of Payments and the National Accounts will continuously improve as a result of the introduction of the VINN and SVDB data sources.

What happens now?

Using data from VINN in the Balance of Payments will increase gradually. For the publication of the third quarter of 2021, data on transactions from portfolio investments will be retrieved from VINN. VINN data will also be used for balances and transactions in the reserve assets as from the publication of the third quarter of 2021.

The objective is to enable retrieval of all data on debt securities, funds, and shares, Swedish as well as foreign, from VINN and SVDB in the long term.

Breaks in the time series that arise from these changes will be addressed consistently by Statistics Sweden.

More information

Statistics on securities holdings (VINN), are based on a survey carried out by Statistics Sweden on behalf of the Riksbank. Data is submitted to the database on Swedish investors’ holdings, for all securities. These statistics also form the basis for calculating earnings on financial assets and liabilities, and are also used by the National Accounts in both non-financial and financial sector accounts.

Contact

Malin Wallén

Telephone
+46 10 479 41 27
E-mail
malin.wallen@scb.se

Nicolai Nystrand

Telephone
+46 10 479 45 45
E-mail
nicolai.nystrand@scb.se