Financial assets are the country's holdings in the rest of the world and liabilities are the rest of the world's holdings of the country's residents. Mr. Liby adds that the International Investment Position takes stock of assets and liabilities for a given period (year or quarter). The definition of the Peg is similar to that of the financial account of the balance of payments. It uses the same five asset classes which are:

Direct investments

Portfolio investments

Derivative financial instruments

Other investments

Have them in reserve

However, indicates the Ivorian economist, unlike the financial account of the balance of payments which traces the flows (variation between the different categories of assets and liabilities between two periods), the International Investment Position gives the volume or the stock of each of these assets or liabilities at a given period. As such, the financial account provides an explanation of the evolution of the international investment position.

Guillaume Liby gives the following example for a better understanding. According to him, if the direct investments held by the country's residents are 10 in January 2015 and 20 in December 2015, then the financial account established in December 2015 will retain the flow of 10 (ie 20 minus 10). It will be said that the assets held by economic agents resident in the rest of the world have increased by 10. This increase may be either the result of the acquisition of new assets or of changes in the price of existing assets.

In the International Investment Position for December 2015, only the assets held by residents in the rest of the world will be taken into account, ie the figure of 20 which is the stock of financial assets at that date. The financial account of the balance of payments therefore describes the evolution of assets and liabilities during a given period, while the international investment position attests to the stock of assets and liabilities at the end of the given period.

The balance between the assets and liabilities of the International Investment Position on the given date is the Net International Investment Position (Pen). The latter, indicates Mr. Liby, reflects the net patrimonial situation of the country vis-à-vis the outside world. The Pen can be positive or negative. If it is positive, it means that the country has financial assets in the rest of the world. If it is negative, the country is financed by the rest of the world.

As such, the net external position makes it possible to immediately identify the stock of the country's external indebtedness and assess its sustainability. It is also possible to indicate the level of indebtedness by type of resident economic agent (financial companies, non-financial companies, households, government).

If we refer to a Bceao document entitled "Balance of payments and global external position" published in 2019, Senegal's net global external position (Pen) in 2018 came out as a debit at 6643.0 billion FCfa against 5701 FCfa.0 billion a year earlier, i.e. a deterioration of FCfa 942.0 billion, reflecting the financing of the balance of non-financial transactions.

This deterioration, explains the Bceao, reflects a greater increase in liabilities (+1,967.1 billion) than that of assets (+1,025.1 billion) which stood at 11,519.2 billion and 4,876.2 billion respectively in 2018 .