Quarterly or annually, every country tends to check and determine its international monetary transactions by assessing economic exchange records between its residents and residents of other nations. Fundamentally, these records are called the balance of payments. With the inclusion of every element and transaction in this statistical statement, the overall sum should tend to zero in a perfect scenario. This denotes that the outflow and inflow of funds must balance out.
Primarily, three accounts make up the balance of payments – the current account, the capital account, and the financial account. In comparison, the capital account assesses money exchange across borders, while the current account gauges product and services exchange. On the other hand, the financial account only keeps a record of investment streams.
Importance of balance of payment as an accounting measure
Considering to invest in any nation’s resources usually beg a billion-dollar question of, “Is this choice indeed a rational or logical decision.” As such, it has become the tradition of investors to closely examine and study the economically vulnerable sectors of nations before making any decisions to invest in their resources alike. The zeal to achieve maximum productivity in an investment triggers careful examination and scrutiny as some investments may not worth the risk To put this in perspective, investing in the banking sector of a nation with a shaky and unstable financial scale might not worth the risk in the long term. This is because the nation may be on the verge of bankruptcy, and when declared bankrupt, recovering initial capital can be a relatively arduous task.
With that said, a nation’s capacity is fundamentally a result of its ability to sustain international trade. Thus, the balance of payments serves to check whether or not its export volume is sufficient to cater to its imports. International investors and observers assess a country’s balance of payment to determine whether it has a deficit or surplus. In cases whereby the liabilities and assets balance out, the balance of payment sums up to zero. Nevertheless, this is not usually the case. Almost every country either has a deficit or surplus – debit or credit, determined by the value of imported goods relative to the exported ones.
Primarily, the statistical estimation of money flowing in and out of a country may often represent its vulnerability to external constraints. Hence, investors and international observers can draw fundamental uncertainties and market expectations from the balance of payments.
Since the balance of payments represents the statistical record of every economic transaction flowing in and out of a country with a given period, undoubtedly, it encompasses every external non-visible and visible transaction. The fundamental significance to note is that the balance of payment offers comprehensive information about the demand and supply of a country. Besides, its data may represent a country’s profitability as a business partner to other countries globally. Lastly, its data may also assess the performance of a country in economic competition globally.
Current account and its components
The current account represents the imports, assets income, exports, net income, and direct transfers of a country. A current account only balances when the residents of a nation have sufficient funds to fund every purchase in the country. Usually, these funds include savings and income, and purchases encompass every customer spending, alongside government infrastructure spending.
In essence, this account features four fundamental components; direct transfers, net income, trade, and asset income. Foreign aid from a government of a country to another, any fund wired by a country’s workers to their home country, and foreign direct investments all constitute direct transfers. Net income covers every income a country’s residents generate, whether acquired overseas or on foreign investments. The most significant component of this account is trades, which involves buying and selling goods between countries. Most countries often strive to accumulate more exports than imports, and this phenomenon represents a trade surplus. A deficit occurs when the imported goods surpass the exported ones—lastly, asset income centers around the fall and rise of assets with a nation.
Capital account and its components
The capital account refers to the record of capital outflows and inflows that directly influence a nation’s foreign liabilities and assets alike. It represents every international trade transaction between residents of a country and others. Its essential components include foreign loans and foreign investments, monetary movements in foreign exchange reserves, alongside banking and other capital forms. Primarily, this account indicates factors such as investments, capital, banking, and commercial borrowing.
A capital account focuses on debt and claims payment irrespective of the stipulated period. A surplus in this account denotes an inflow of money into the economy; otherwise, a deficit means money is moving out of the country.
Financial account and its component
The financial account refers to the balance of payments that tracks decreases and increases in international asset ownership. The primary components include the domestic ownership of foreign assets, which is further grouped into government, private and central bank reserves (International Economics…). The other component is the foreign ownership of domestic assets.
How important is the U.S. deficit in traded goods regarding the balance of payment?
International trades have always been the principal driver of the united state’s current account balance. However, over the last few decades, the U.S. current account had been charging towards a deeper deficit. A deficit in traded goods denotes a negative balance of payment since the U.S. is importing more than it exports.
In contrast to the common idea, the presence of a deficit in traded goods might not, in itself, indicate an unfavorable or declining economic condition. The trade deficit in the U.S. only denotes that the country imports more than in exports capital, and of course, that is a relatively harmless action. In essence, deficit simply responds to the present conditions in a country. It might be a response to sub-par productivity or inflation.
In fact, if the united states imports more than it exports, denoting a deficit in the current account, this suggests that the supply of USD in the foreign exchange market will likely exceed its demand, which is also of significant importance.
