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Balance Of Payments

Balance Of Payments Meaning:
A balance sheet for a country, summarizing all transactions between that country and the rest of the world during a specific period of time, usually a quarter or a calendar year.

A balance of payments records ‘money in,’ for example money gained from exports, as positive values and ‘money out,’ for example money spent on imports, as negative ones. If all components of the balance of payments are included then it must balance (that is, have a sum of zero), but that doesn’t mean that the country in question is not accumulating a surplus from, or a debt to, the rest of the world.