Factor income consists largely of payments and receipts of interest, dividends, and other income from foreign investment.
Unilateral transfers mean unrequited payments (无偿支 3-10 付) including foreign aid, reparation, and gifts.
How the balance of payments accounts is formed?
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Chapter Outline
3.1 Balance of Payments Accounting 3.2 Balance of Payments Accounts
3.2.1 The Current Account 3.2.2 The Capital Account 3.2.3 Statistical Discrepancy 3.2.4 Official Reserves Account
3.2 Balance of Payments Accounts
The balance of payments accounts are those that record all international transactions between the residents of a country and residents of all foreign nations.
International economic transactions[1] include import and export of goods and services, and cross-border investments in businesses, bank accounts, bonds, stocks, and real estate.
The receipt of Boeing will be recorded as a credit (+), which will be matched by a debit (-) of the same amount representing a reduction of the bank.
Services contain payments and receipts for legal services, consulting services, and engineering maintenance, tourist expenditure, royalties for patents and intellectual properties, and shipping fee.
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Bouble-entry Bookkeeping[3]
(Example 3)
Suppose that Ford merges Jaguar for $750 million, and that Jaguar deposits the money in Barclays Bank in London, which in turn, uses the sum to purchase US treasury notes.
The current account balance (经常账户余额), especially the international trade balance (国际贸 易余额), tends to be sensitive to exchange rate change.
The Current Account Balance
Payment by Boeing will be recorded as a debit (-), and deposit by Rolls-Royce will be recorded as a credit (+).
This will lead to a rise in the supply of dollars and the demand for British pounds.
Eventually, the trade balance will tend to improve over time. It depends on the elasticity of imported and exported products
This particular reaction pattern of the international trade balance to a depreciation is referred to as the J-curve effect (from Exhibit 3.2).
From previous example 1 and 2, it represents
Every credit in the balance of payments is matched by a debit somewhere to conform to the principle of doubleentry bookkeeping.
When a country’s currency depreciates against the currencies of major trading partners, the country’s exports tend to rise and imports fall, improving international trade balance.
Merchandize trade
If the debits exceed the credits, then trade balance (贸易余额) of a country is running a trade deficit (贸易赤字).
If the credits exceed the debits, then trade balance of a country is running a trade surplus (贸易盈余).
The effect of currency depreciation on a country’s trade balance can be more complicated than the case described above.
The Current Account Balance
Indeed, following a depreciation, the international trade balance may at first deteriorate for a while.
In 2009, the U.S. experiences a $419.8 billion current account deficit (from Exhibit 3.1)
The Current Account
Merchandize trade includes all imports and exports of tangible goods such as clothes, cars and computers.
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3.2.1 The Current Account (经常账户)
The current account is divided into four finer categories:
Merchandize trade Services Factor income Unilateral transfers
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Balance of Payments Accounting
Since balance of payments is recorded over a certain period of time [2](a quarter or a year), it has the same time dimension as national income accounting. (Appendix 3A)
Bouble-entry Bookkeeping[3]
(Example 1)
Suppose that Boeing exported 747 aircraft to Japan Airlines for $50 million, and that Japan pays from its bank in New York.
The Balance of Payments is the statistical record of a country’s international transactions[1] over a certain period of time[2] presented in the form of double-entry bookkeeping[3].
The payment by Ford will be recorded as a debit (-), whereas Barclays’ purchase of the US treasury notes will be recorded as a credit (+).
Balance of Payments Accounting
3.3 The Balance of Payments Identity 3.4 Balance of Payments Trends in Major
Countries
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3.1 Balance of Payments Accounting
Official definition about balance of payment (国 际收支) is as follows:
Balance of Payments
Chapter Objective: