IntroductionSince the early 1980s there have been significant changes in the scope and complexity of international transactions in the world economy. These changes emanated from the liberalisation of financial markets, the widespread abolition of capital controls, innovations in the creation of financial instruments and new approaches to the restructuring of external debt. In addition, there was strong growth in international trade in services. These developments necessitated changes in the recording and the classification of such transactions in the structure of the balance-of-payments accounts. The fifth edition of the International Monetary Fund’s Balance of Payments Manual standardises the concepts, definitions and classifications of international transactions. It also facilitates the collection, organisation and comparability of statistics on the balance of payments, international investment position and foreign debt.The Balance of Payments Manual (BPM5) provides a conceptual framework to reconcile balance-of-payments flows (transactions) with stocks of financial assets and liabilities (the international investment position);harmonises the balance-of-payments transaction flows with the rest-of-the-world account in the United Nations' System of National Accounts (SNA);distinguishes between international transactions in services and transactions in income;expands the list of identifiable transactions in services to reflect their growing importance and their contributions to or linkages with other statistical systems; andexpands the coverage of financial flows and the restructuring of stocks.