Finance glossary
Balance of Payments
Definition
A record of all economic transactions between a country and the world.
The balance of payments tallies a nation transactions with the rest of the world, split into the current account (trade and income) and the capital and financial accounts. By construction it must balance, with surpluses in one offset by deficits in another.
In a sentence
A persistent current-account deficit showed up clearly in the country's balance of payments.
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