Balance of Payments

HS 301
 Definition
Balance of Payment of country is defined as a systematic statistical record of all
economic transactions taking place between residents of a country and rest of the
world over a specified time period, which is usually a year.

Economic transactions – it is an act which involves the transfer of title of

ownership of goods and assets. It also includes rendering of services by one person
to another. International economic transactions take place between residents of
two countries. It involves payments and receipt of money in exchange of goods,
services or assets. But it need not always involve payment and receipt of money. In
case of gifts or donations, no receipt and payments are involved but they are
international economic transactions.

Resident – resident of a country is a person who resides in a country and whose

citizenship he/ she holds. E.g., tourists, diplomatic personnel, students studying
abroad, workers migrating abroad, are the residents of a country from where they
come. Military personnel are residents of a country whose uniform they wear.
Difference between BOT and BOP
Balance of Trade (BOT) includes trade in visible items, i.e., material
goods. Also known an merchandise account.

Balance of Payments (BOP) includes trade in both visible (material

goods) and invisible goods (services, capital flows etc.).
 Features of BOP
• It is a systematic statistical record of all economic transactions between one
country and rest of the world.
• It includes all transactions – visible as well as invisible.
• It relates to a period of time. Generally it is an annual statement.
• It adopts a double entry book keeping system for recording transactions. It has
two sides – credit side and debit side. All export of goods and services, export of
assets, receipt of loans and any debt securities are recorded on the credit side. All
import of goods and services, import of foreign assets, extension of loans and
debt securities are recorded on the debit side.
• When sum of all credits are equal to the sum of all debits, the BOP is in
equilibrium; when credits are greater than debits, there is a surplus in BOP; when
credits are less than debits, the BOP is in deficit.
• In accounting sense, total credits and debits in the BOP statement always balance
each other.
 BOP consists of following accounts
• Current Account
• Capital Account
• Capital Account often subdivided into Private Capital Account and
Official Reserve Transaction (ORT) Account
BOP should always balance in accounting sense. Any discrepancy in the
current account is usually settled through transactions in private capital
account or through transactions in ORT account.
Any remaining imbalance settled through Statistical Discrepancy
 Features of Current Account
• Involves real short time transactions (concerned with actual transfer of
goods and services which affect income, output and expenditure of the
country. They are income generating transfers; not merely financial
transaction).
• It involves no payment obligations for the future.
• It is a statement on exports and imports of visible and invisible items.
• Visible items – export and import of material goods.
• Invisible items – export and import of services.
• The account has two sides – a debit side and a credit side. Transactions
contributing to outflow of money from the economy are recorded in the
debit side, while the transactions contributing to inflow of money in the
economy are recorded in the credit side.
 Current Account of a Country

Credit Debit
Export of goods and services, inflow of interest Import of goods and services, outflow of interest
incomes from investment made abroad, travel and incomes from investments made by foreign firms
tourism expenses made by foreign tourists within the within the domestic economy, travel and tourism
country etc. expenses made by domestic residents while travelling
abroad etc.
 Items of Current Account
Merchandise Trade
• Merchandise – export and import of goods; export credit item, import debit item.
Trade in Services
• Travel – travel for business, education, health, international conventions or pleasure; expenditure
by foreign tourists credit item, expenditure by our tourists abroad debit item.
• Transportation – international transportation of goods, e.g., warehousing (while in transit), other
transit expenses; use of domestic transport services by foreigners credit item, use of foreign
transport services by domestic traders debit item.
• Insurance – insurance premiums and payment of claims; insurance policies sold to foreigners
credit item, insurance policies purchased by domestic users from foreigners debit item.
• Investment income – interest, rents, dividends and profits; income received on capital invested
abroad credit item, expenses on capital borrowed from abroad debit item.
• Government transactions – expenditure incurred by the government for the upkeep of its
organization abroad, e.g., payment of salaries to ambassadors, high commissioners etc.; such
incomes received from foreign government credit item, payments made to the government
officials stationed abroad debit item.
 Items cont.

• Miscellaneous – expenditure incurred on services like advertisement, commissions, film rentals,

patent fees, royalties, subscriptions to periodicals, membership fees etc.; payments received from
abroad credit item, payments made abroad debit item.
• Donations and gifts – unilateral transfers or unrequited payments, because nothing is given in
return for them; donations/ gifts received credit item, donations/ gifts made debit item.
 Transfers

2 types:
• Pure or unilateral transfers – just one way flow. No return flow is expected. Unilateral transfers
are recorded in current account.
• Capital transfers – two way flow. No current return flow but in future there will be some return
flow. If a country borrows from another country, it will not have to pay back in the current
accounting period. For the current accounting period loans taken is a transfer.
 Features of Capital Account
• It deals with financial transactions.
• It involves payment obligations for the future, transactions in assets.
• All short and long term international movement of capital.
• The capital account has 2 sides – a debit side and a credit side. Export of assets by a country are
recorded in the credit side, while import of assets are recorded in the debit side.
• Gold transactions (monetary gold) form a part of capital account.
• Country invests or lends abroad or acquires foreign assets – debit
• Country borrows from abroad or foreign investments enter or exports domestic assets – credit.
• All financial transactions relating to transfer of money and have no direct impact on the level of
income and output of the economy.
• Capital account includes 2 types of foreign investments – foreign direct investments and foreign
portfolio investments.
• Capital account can be divided into Private Capital Account and Official Reserve Transaction
(ORT) Account.
 Capital Account of a Country

Credit Debit
Inflow of investments from other countries, borrowing Investing in other countries, lending to other
from other countries, exporting assets countries, acquiring or importing foreign assets
 Features of Capital Account cont.

• If assets are traded between private citizens of two countries then transactions are recorded in
Private Capital Account; private lending to other countries / private purchase of assets from other
countries/ private investments abroad are debit items; private borrowings from other countries/
private sale of assets to other countries/ inflow of private investments from abroad are credit
items.
• If assets are traded between central banks or the monetary authorities of 2 countries then the
transactions are recorded in the ORT Account.
 Few Definitions
• Foreign Direct Investments: Investments in the form of a controlling ownership in a business
enterprise in one country, by an entity based in another country. FDI is frequently not a simple
monetary transfer of ownership or controlling interest, but also involves complementary factors
such as participation in organizational and management systems, and transfer of technology and
expertise. FDI can be made by individuals but are more commonly made by companies wishing to
establish a business presence in a foreign country.

• Foreign Portfolio Investments: Foreign Portfolio Investment is the entry of funds into a country
where foreigners deposit money in a country's bank or make purchases in the country’s stock and
bond markets. Portfolio investments typically involve transactions in securities that are highly
liquid, i.e. they can be bought and sold very quickly. A portfolio investment is an investment made
by an investor who is not involved in the management of a company.
 Definitions cont.
• Asset: Any item of economic value owned by an individual or corporation,
especially that which could be converted to cash. Examples are cash, securities,
office equipment, real estate, a car, and other property. Asset of an individual is
what he/ she owns.

• Liabilities: A liability is a present obligation of the enterprise arising from past

events, the settlement of which is expected to result in an outflow from the
enterprise of resources embodying economic benefits, i.e., transfer or use of
assets, provision of services etc. Liability of an individual is what he/ she owes to
others.

• In capital account, Assets = Debit, Liabilities = Credit.

• In current account, Credit = Income, Debit = Payment.

 Official Reserve Transaction Account
• ORT Account shows the extent of official intervention by the monetary authority
of a country (Central Bank) to finance external imbalance.
• It consists of Central Bank’s transactions in international reserve assets, e.g.,
foreign exchange reserves, gold (monetary), credits issued by IMF (International
Monetary Fund), Special Drawing Rights (SDR).
• Acquiring foreign assets through purchase of monetary gold, SDR, lending by the
Central Bank, are recorded as debit item.
• Selling of foreign assets through sale of monetary gold, SDR, borrowing by the
Central Bank, are recorded as credit item.
 Foreign Exchange Reserves
Foreign exchange reserves consist of every convertible foreign currency
held as foreign reserves. They should be convertible into gold, dollar or
any other international reserve assets. No country will hold rupee as
foreign reserve.
 Special Drawing Rights (SDR)
• International reserve assets created by IMF.
• They are described as “paper gold”.
• SDR was created in 1969 to supplement a shortfall of preferred foreign exchange reserve assets,
namely gold and US dollar.
• SDR is not a currency. It is a potential claim on the freely usable currencies of the IMF members.
Hence countries can exchange their SDR holdings for these currencies, to adjust their reserves
and balance of payment needs.
• The value of SDR is based on a basket of key international currencies reviewed by IMF every 5
years.
• The currencies included in SDR basket have to meet 2 criteria: the export criterion (the issuer is
an IMF member and is also one of the top 5 world exporters) and the freely usable criterion (the
currency has to be widely used to make payments for international transactions and widely
traded in principal exchange market).
• The weight assigned to each currency in SDR basket is adjusted to take into account their current
prominence in terms of international trade and national foreign exchange reserves.
• In November 2015 review, IMF decided to include Chinese Yuan (renminbi) in the basket from 1st
October 2016. From that date onwards SDR basket consists of 5 currencies: US dollar, Euro,
Chinese Yuan, Japanese Yen, British Pound. The review concluded in May 2022 assigned the
weights 43.38%, 29.31%, 12.28%, 7.59% and 7.44% to respective currencies (effective from
August 2022).
 SDR cont.
• SDRs are allocated to the member countries of IMF by IMF. The amount of SDR that is allocated to
each country is based on their individual IMF quota. IMF quotas are based on the relative
economic position of the country in the world economy. The quota is a country’s financial
commitment to the IMF and its voting power.
 Monetary Gold
• Gold owned by a government, usually as a part of currency reserves.
• Many states hold monetary gold as a part of many things that
determine a currency’s value, the bulk of which is the reserve of
foreign currency.
• Monetary gold is not traded, except between central banks and
occasionally with international organizations such as IMF.
• Transactions in monetary gold occur only between monetary
authorities and their counterparts in other economies, or between
monetary authorities and international monetary organizations.
• Transactions in monetary gold is recorded in the ORT Account.
 Non-Monetary Gold
• Non-monetary gold covers exports and imports of all gold not held as
reserve assets ( i.e., monetary gold) by the authorities.
• Non- monetary gold is treated as any other commodity.
• Transactions in non-monetary gold is recorded in the Current
Account.
 Double Entry Book Keeping Method
The accounting procedure that is used in preparing the BOP Account is
the double entry book keeping method. The rationale behind the
procedure is that each complete economic transaction should be
recorded twice (once as a credit item and once as a debit item),
because each economic transaction has two sides. In international
transactions, something leaves the country and something enters the
country, and therefore they should be recorded twice.

Please refer to the attached document for an example of double entry

method of book keeping:
Demonstration of Double Entry Method of Book Keeping.docx
 Balance in BOP
• Double entry book keeping method ensures that the BOP of a country is
balanced or in equilibrium. If a country has current account deficit, it must
have a capital account surplus, either through surplus in the private capital
account or through surplus in ORT account.

𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡 + 𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡 ≡ 0

or
𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡 + 𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑣𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡 + 𝑂𝑅𝑇 𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡 ≡ 0
• But the accounting identity may not hold due to measurement errors. For
that reason, errors are reported under the heading Statistical Discrepancy
to balance BOP account.
• 𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡 + 𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡 + 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑝𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑦 = 0
 Statistical Discrepancy
The amount that must be added or subtracted to force the measured
current account balance and the measured capital account balance to
zero.
 Foreign Repercussions Effect
• Consider a large country A and its trade with country B.
• Foreign repercussions effect is defined as the effect of a change in
national income and imports of a country on the national income
abroad and thus the backwash it has on the foreign trade and
national income at home.
• Two trading partners’ incomes get linked because of the foreign
repercussions effect.
• This linkage is the basis of international transmission of business
cycles. If a recession occurs in one country, it spreads to another
country.
Mechanism:
𝑌𝐴 ↑→ 𝑀𝐴 ↑→ 𝑋𝐵 ↑→ 𝑌𝐵 ↑→ 𝑀𝐵 ↑→ 𝑋𝐴 ↑→ 𝑌𝐴 ↑
 Nominal Exchange Rate (NER)
• It is the price of one currency in terms of another currency.
• It is the rate at which one currency is exchanged for another.
• It is nominal because it measures only numerical exchange value, and
does not say anything about the purchasing power of that currency.
• The NER of rupee: 70 INR/$
 Effective Exchange Rate (EER)
• To get a true picture of the value of domestic currency in the international
market, the concept of EER has emerged.
• It is an index that describes the strength of a country’s currency relative to
a basket of currencies of the country’s most important trading partners.
• When looking at the EER of rupee, we will compare the value of rupee
against our main trading partners’ currencies, e.g., Chinese yuan, US dollar,
dirham etc., and give a weight depending upon how much we trade with
that country, e.g., China 40%, US 30.5%, UAE 20.5%. Thus weighting will be
given to different countries depending on how significant they are.
• The EER is good for looking at the overall performance of a currency e.g.,
rupee may appreciate against dollar, but this may be due to just temporary
weakness in dollar. However, if overall EER increases, it suggests rupee is
becoming stronger.
 Real Exchange Rate (RER)
• Real exchange rates are used to incorporate the purchasing power and competitiveness aspect of
currency.
• RER is NER multiplied by the ratio of price indices of two currencies (market price level of goods
and services, given by the indices of inflation).
𝑃∗
𝑅𝐸𝑅 = 𝑁𝐸𝑅 ∗
𝑃
P is the domestic price level.
P* is the foreign price level.
• Discerning how domestic goods are faring relative to foreign goods in terms of competitiveness.
• RER is the rate at which goods of one country will exchange for the goods of another country.
• 𝑁𝐸𝑅 ∗ 𝑃∗ is the price of foreign basket of goods in terms of rupee. Therefore, RER denotes the
ratio of the prices of foreign goods to domestic goods in terms of rupee.
• RER is the real price of foreign goods, i.e., the quantity of domestic goods needed to purchase a
unit of foreign goods.
• If P*>P, the amount of domestic goods needed to purchase a unit of foreign good will be more.
Hence RER > NER.
• If P*<P, the amount of domestic goods needed to purchase a unit of foreign good will be less.
Hence, RER < NER.
 RER cont.
Increase in RER of a country implies:
• Foreign goods are becoming more expensive relative to domestic goods.
• People in the country can get less foreign goods for an equivalent amount
of domestic goods.
• Net imports will decrease → lowering of current account deficit → higher
aggregate demand (due to falling imports and rising exports).

Fall in RER of a country will have opposite outcomes.

Considering RER, with currency devaluation 𝑁𝐸𝑅 ↑ and equivalent

increase in domestic price level 𝑃 ↑ , RER remains unchanged. As a result,
competitiveness of domestic and foreign goods would not be altered.
 Foreign Exchange Market
• It is the place where one national currency can be converted into
another currency.
• It is the organizational framework within which individuals, firms or
banks buy and sell foreign currencies.
• The foreign exchange market for one single currency, say, US$, is
composed of all locations where US$ are bought and sold for other
foreign currencies.
• The banks deal in the foreign exchange markets. The banks via the
foreign exchange markets develop contacts with individuals.
 Determination of Equilibrium Foreign
Exchange Rate
• Demand for foreign exchange of a country has a negative relation
with the exchange rate (amount of domestic currency per unit of
foreign currency).
• Supply of foreign exchange of a country has a positive relation with
the exchange rate (amount of domestic currency per unit of foreign
currency).
• The intersection of demand and supply of foreign exchange
determines the equilibrium exchange rate for a country.
• The relevant diagrams and explanations can be accessed here:
• Equilibrium in Foreign Exchange Market- Diagram.docx
 Causes of Deficits in the Current Account
• Development schemes – developing countries invest a huge amount in development
schemes – import capital goods, raw materials, highly skilled manpower - exports may
not increase as these countries are primary products producing countries – hence deficit
in current A/c.
• Price–cost structure – increase in prices due to higher wages, higher cost of raw
materials etc., reduces exports and makes current A/c unfavorable.
• Changes in foreign exchange rates – a decrease in FER makes imports cheaper and
exports dearer, thus making A/c unfavorable.
• Fall in export demand – lack of export demand for the primary goods of the
underdeveloped countries can lead to deficits in their current A/c.
• Demonstration effect – people in less developed countries following the consumption
patterns of the developed countries – with simultaneous fewer goods to export, current
A/c may be in deficit.
• Cyclical fluctuations – related to business cycles – during recession in a foreign country,
incomes of foreign residents fall so they demand less of imports, therefore exports of
domestic country fall leading to current A/c deficits.
• Population explosion – increasing imports
• Natural factors – natural calamities affecting the production of a country.
 Methods of Correcting Deficit
1) Deflation – the policy of reducing the quantity of money by Central
Bank through rise in bank rate, selling of securities in the open market
etc., will reduce the money income of the people. Hence, demand falls,
leading to fall in prices. Result – exports will increase and imports will
fall – deficit reduced.

Deflation has following problems –

• Reduction in wages and incomes strongly opposed by trade unions.
• Unemployment creation.
• Expansionary monetary policy rather than contractionary monetary
policy more desirable in a developing economy.
 Deficit Correction cont.
2) Depreciation – fall in the value of home currency with respect to foreign
currency – more domestic currency required to buy a unit of foreign
currency - imports fall and exports rise – deficit reduced - works in a flexible
exchange rate system.

Problems associated with depreciation:

• Not suitable for a country which follows fixed exchange rate system.
• Terms of trade go against the country whose currency depreciates because
the foreign goods have become costlier than the local goods and the
country has to export more to pay for the same volume of imports.
• If other countries start depreciating their currencies, the process may not
be successful.
 Deficit Correction cont.
3) Devaluation – reduction in external value of currency by the central bank or
monetary authority of a country.

Success of devaluation depends on following conditions:

• Elasticity of demand for the country’s exports should be greater than unity.
• Elasticity of demand for a country’s imports must be greater than unity.
• Exports of a country should be non-traditional and increasingly demanded by
other countries.
• Other countries should not retaliate by resorting to devaluation.

Devaluation suffers from certain defects:

• Devaluation is a clear reflection on the country’s economic weakness.
• Reduces confidence of the people in the country’s currency and may lead to
speculative outflow of capital.
 Deficit Correction cont.

4) Exchange Controls – control over the use of foreign exchange by the

central bank – all exporters are directed to surrender their foreign exchange
earnings – foreign exchange is rationed among licensed importers and only
essential imports are permitted.
5) Capital Movement – correct deficit through inflow of capital or capital
imports – if capital is perfectly mobile between countries, an increase in the
domestic interest rates above the world rate will result in inflow of capital.
6) Encouraging Exports – adoption of various export promotion programs by
the government such as reduction of export duties, provision of export
subsidies, incentives for exporters e.g., cheaper credits.
7) Discouraging Imports – imposition of import duties and quotas,
promoting import substitution etc.