errors and omissions

Errors and omissions is a residual entry in balance-of-payments statistics. It is used when the recorded values of transactions do not produce the equality required by the accounts, with the amount and sign correcting the resulting discrepancy. The residual may reflect missing observations, reporting or measurement errors, or inconsistencies in the timing and valuation of entries. A sizeable or persistent errors-and-omissions balance may point to limitations in the underlying data, but it does not reveal which transaction or measurement generated the gap.