According to the instructions of the Government of the Republic of Belarus, the reporting balance of payments is compiled by the National Bank on the basis of data on the trade balance and other foreign trade flows (services, humanitarian aid, direct investment in commodity form, etc.) formed by the Ministry of Statistics together with the State Customs Committee on the basis of data from cargo customs declarations with the subsequent involvement of data on foreign trade flows from banking statistics. The IMF Balance of Payments Manual (mostly 5th edition) serves as the methodological basis.