Finflows : database for bilateral financial investment stocks and flows : manual for a joint database DG-ECFIN & DG-JRC

Bilateral financial investments are not commonly available from a single source. Our database Finflows aims at centralising the information on bilateral capital financial stocks and financial flows in a single place. It provides estimates of external assets and liabilities flows between around 80 countries including those from European Union, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Russia, China, Brazil, India and the largest offshore countries. The database contains yearly data from 2000 to the last available year (in general with a 20 months delay). Initially developed by (Hobza & Zeugner, 2014) under the scope of the macroeconomic surveillance work, we provide bilateral financial investment links broken by class of investment such foreign direct investment, banking flows or portfolio investment following the Sixth Edition of the IMF's Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual (BPM6, 2009). The specificity of this database lies in the fact that it includes official intermediated links either via European Central Bank's funding or other official flows which were providing financial assistance to Euro-area countries in distress helping them to refinance their liabilities. We also consider the investment made during the quantitative easing program of the European Central Bank in 2010 and redirect those inter-banking transactions and customer payments that are settled, in real time, within the Euro-zone system when necessary. Another advantage of the database Finflows relies in the resolution of potential mismatch between countries' declarations