Balance of payments is a statistical report, which systematically records the transactions between economic entities and other parts of the world in a certain period of time. Most transactions are between residents and non-residents.

Narrow sense of balance of payments refers to the comparison between the total foreign exchange income obtained from other countries and the total foreign exchange expenditure paid to other countries in a certain period (one year, one quarter or one month) due to various foreign exchanges, which must be settled immediately. During the reporting period, all transactions involving foreign exchange receipts and payments belong to the category of international payments.

The generalized balance of payments refers to the statistics of all international economic transactions generated by various foreign exchange in a certain period (one year, one season or one month) of a country (or region). It includes not only a country's foreign exchange receipts and payments, but also various economic transactions that do not involve foreign exchange receipts and payments, such as bookkeeping trade and barter trade under settlement and payment agreements.

First of all, the concept of balance of payments

1, narrow sense of balance of payments: refers to the country's foreign exchange receipts and payments.

2. Generalized balance of payments: refers to the income and payments generated by various economic exchanges between a country and other countries (regions) in the world, including both international economic exchanges involving foreign exchange receipts and payments and international economic exchanges not involving foreign exchange receipts and payments; It includes not only international exchange behavior, but also unilateral transfer such as gold monetization, allocation and cancellation of special drawing rights, reclassification of creditor's rights and debts and other behaviors, which are collectively called foreign transactions. At present, the balance of payments, which is widely used in various countries, is compiled according to the broad concept of balance of payments, reflecting a country's foreign economic situation.

Balance of payments is a comparative relationship between all monetary funds received from abroad and all monetary funds paid abroad in a certain period of time. Equal balance of payments is called balance of payments, otherwise it is unbalanced. Total income is greater than total expenditure, which is called balance of payments surplus, or balance of payments surplus; Total expenditure is greater than total income, which is called balance of payments deficit, or balance of payments deficit. Deficit refers to external liabilities, which are generally paid in foreign exchange or gold.

The global unified balance of payments system was established after the establishment of the International Monetary Fund. The International Monetary Fund issued the first edition of the Balance of Payments Manual in 1948, and then revised it in 1950, 19 1, 1977 and 1993, adding new ones. At present, most IMF member countries have adopted the concepts and classifications of the fourth edition of IMF 1977, and started to revise and enrich their own balance of payments statistics system according to the newly formulated classification and requirements of the fifth edition. Compiling and providing the balance of payments has become the obligation of the members of the International Monetary Fund, and it is also an important part of participating in the activities of other international economic organizations.

The balance of payments is a statistical table that systematically records some economic activities between a country and its residents in a certain period (such as one year, half a year or one quarter), and is compiled according to the principle of double-entry bookkeeping. Some income items or items with increased liabilities and decreased assets are classified as debits, while some expenditure items or items with increased assets and decreased liabilities are classified as debits. For every economic transaction, both the borrower and the lender keep separate accounts, and the amount is equal. Therefore, in principle, the total debit of all items in the balance of payments is equal to the total credit, and the net difference is zero. However, in reality, the loan of a specific project in the balance of payments is often unbalanced, and there will always be a difference after the balance of payments. Differences in specific projects are called local differences. Income exceeds expenditure, which is called surplus, and expenditure exceeds income, which is called deficit. The sum of local differences is the total balance of payments, which is called balance of payments surplus or deficit, also known as balance of payments surplus or deficit. According to the methods and contents stipulated by the International Monetary Fund, the balance of payments includes current account, capital account, error and omission.

The current account is one of the two main items in the balance of payments, which is used to count the balance of payments activities such as goods, services and unilateral transfer. The project includes three aspects:

(1) Commodity import and export is the most important content in current account transactions, including the transfer of ownership of most movable property in cross-border transactions. Sometimes the ownership of goods has been transferred, but the goods have not yet entered or left the country, which should also be included in the import and export items of goods. These include: ships, planes, natural gas and oil rigs and several drilling platforms; Goods salvaged by domestic ships and aquatic products such as fish directly caught and sold abroad; The domestic government buys goods abroad and supplies them to users in another country; Having obtained the ownership of the goods at the time of import, but getting wet or damaged before entering the country. Although some commodities have entered and exited the country, their ownership has not changed, and they are not included in the import and export projects of commodities. For example, goods that have been processed, modified, packaged, repaired and modified and shipped to foreign countries for sale. However, the added value after processing should be regarded as services provided to foreigners. In addition, precious metals and precious stones, such as gold, are general commodities, import and export commodities of the government, import and export commodities of direct investment enterprises, property of immigrants, smuggled goods and so on.

(2) Labor cost is the second largest content of current account. It mainly includes: transportation fees, insurance premiums and other ancillary expenses of commodities, such as port fees, passenger cars, ship tickets and other labor costs of cars and ships. Tourism refers to the goods and services purchased by tourists for themselves or others during their stay in the country; Investment income, including profit income from operating direct investment enterprises and dividend income from equity investors; And other goods and services, that is, official transactions, private transactions and private property income other than the above. In addition, the wages of embassy and consulate staff, the property income of domestic residents abroad, commercial sales other than commodity import and export, professional services and technical services, such as communication and computer services, financial services such as loan interest, copyright and license fees, passenger insurance and other non-commodity insurance are also included in the labor costs.

(3) Unilateral transfer. It mainly includes the transfer of funds by immigrants, remittances from expatriates, free government assistance and grants, and administrative expenses paid by the government to international organizations.

In the balance of payments, capital account is one of the two main items alongside current account, which is used to count the balance of payments of capital, mainly including capital and reserves.

(1) capital, mainly including direct investment and securities investment. The former means that companies, enterprises or individuals of one country set up enterprises in another country to directly carry out production or commercial activities. The ownership of an enterprise is concentrated in the hands of a foreign investor or investor group. The direct investment in the balance of payments capital account includes both foreign direct investment in China and domestic direct investment in foreign countries. Securities investment refers to the investment that companies, enterprises and individuals buy long-term treasury bonds, corporate bonds, bills, stocks and options and other money market tools and financial innovation tools from another country. In many countries, foreign investors or investor groups own more than 10-25% of the voting shares as direct investment. In addition, the capital account also includes some other capital trading activities not included in the above two investments, such as trade credit, loans, money and deposits. Among them, the credit principal is credited to the capital account and the interest is credited to the current account.

(2) The reserve account is actually a means used by a country to balance its international payments or intervene in the foreign exchange rate of its own currency. The reserve items mainly include monetary gold (that is, gold officially held by a country as a monetary fund), foreign exchange reserves, special drawing rights of the International Monetary Fund, reserve positions of IMF member countries in the fund, and foreign exchange, such as currency, deposits, negotiable and discounted securities and other creditor's rights.