Content
About the statistics
Definitions
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Name and topic
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Name: International reserves and foreign currency liquidity
Topic: External economy
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Next release
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Responsible division
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Division for Financial Markets Statistics
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Definitions of the main concepts and variables
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A brief description of the financial institutions and instruments:
Norges Bank: The Central Bank of Norway exercise advisory, excecutant and control functions related to exchange rate-, credit- and monetary policy.
NBIM: Norges Bank Investment Management. NBIM is responsible for investing the Norwegian Government Pension Fund's international assets. In addition to managing the Pension Fund's international assets, NBIM also manages the major share of Norges Bank’s foreign exchange reserves and the Government Petroleum Insurance Fund. NBIM invests in international equities and fixed income instruments, money market instruments and derivatives.
The balance sheet: The balance shows assets, debt and equity by the end of a financial year.
International reserves: Liquid currency claims abroad under the control of monetary authorities.
Foreign currency liquidity: (1) Liquid currency reserves (international reserves and other reserves) under control of the authority. (2) Actual and conditional future net currency flows which affect currency claims (short-term debt in currency and activities off balance).
Future short term obligations: Net currency flows as a result of the authority’s financial activity versus domestic and foreign customers the coming 12 months.
Monetary authorities: The Central Bank
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Standard classifications
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Data are compiled according to the guidelines provided in the IMFs’ ´´Data Template on International Reserves and Foreign Currency Liquidity &– Operational Guidelines´´.
Administrative information
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Regional level
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Only at the national level.
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Frequency and timeliness
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Monthly:
Preliminary figures for total international reserves will be published on the fifth working after the end of the reference month.
Final figures for international reserves and foreign currency liquidity will be published on the 21st (or the following business day) after the end of the reference month.
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International reporting
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International Monetary Fund (IMF).
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Microdata
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Not relevant
Background
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Background and purpose
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Norway adheres to the International Monetary Funds’ (IMF) Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) which among other things obliges the member countries’ central banks to publish a detailed overview of international reserves and foreign currency liquidity.
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Users and applications
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The International Monetary Fund (IMF), Norges Bank and Statistics Norway.
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Equal treatment of users
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Not relevant
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Coherence with other statistics
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Coherence with Norges Banks’ accounts.
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Legal authority
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The Statistics Act § 2-2
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EEA reference
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Not relevant
Production
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Population
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Section I. Includes international reserves and other foreign exchange claims based on market values from the asset side of the balance sheet.
Section II. Actual future short-term net foreign exchange flows from instruments that are not specified in Section I. Cash flows are stated at nominal value.
Section III. Conditional/possible future short-terms net foreign exchange flows to non-residents or residents.
Section IV: Specifications/other relevant information about:
i. positions and flows that are not explained in Section I-III but are considered relevant to assessing the reserves, the foreign currency liquidity position and risk exposure;
ii. additional details about positions and flows explained in Sections I-III;
iii. positions and flows broken down or valued in another way than in Sections I-III.
The data are published in millions of NOK at approximate market value or nominal value. The Government petroleum Fund is not included in the figures. Norges Bank sold most of the gold reserves in the beginning of 2004. The remaining gold is not considered as a part of the official reserves.
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Data sources and sampling
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The data are obtained from Norges Banks’ accounts.
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Collection of data, editing and estimations
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Electronic reporting forms.
Data is controlled by Statistics Norway and Norges Bank.
The data are generally considered to be final at the time of release, and are usually not subject to revision. In the event of revisions, the monthly data become final at the time of the release of the monthly balance sheet of Norges Bank, 10 Norwegian working days after the end of the reference month. The monthly balance sheet is immediately published on the Norges Bank website (http://www.norges-bank.no). Revisions for earlier periods are usually made only for the end of the year, with monthly figures remaining unchanged.
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Seasonal adjustment
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Not relevant
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Confidentiality
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Not relevant
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Comparability over time and space
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Statistical releases older than 7 April 2017.
Time series will be published.
Accuracy and reliability
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Sources of error and uncertainty
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Errors and inconsistencies in accounting data may occur. The sources to inconsistencies can be errors in the transmitting of data from Norges Bank.
Discrepancy between accounting- and trade date may occur.
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Revision
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Not relevant