One of the data mysteries in Ireland in the last few years has been the accumulation of large “net errors and omissions” in the balance of payments in 2010-2012 (summing to €26.4 billion over that period) – the large measured current account surpluses should have a counterpart in large measured net financial outflows but these are not to be found in the data, with one interpretation that the net financial outflows has been of an “unrecorded” nature. The data for Q1-Q3 in 2013 suggest that the NEO term this year should be small – but with no dent made in the large stock of NEO from the last few years. (Usually, negative NEO values are quickly followed by positive NEO values so that the accumulated stock reverts to zero.)
This matters in terms of understanding the overall international financial position of the economy, which is a key indicator for many investors and in relation to working out the repair of sectoral balance sheets in Ireland.