Current Account of the Balance of Payments

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Define what is meant by the current account of the balance of payments. (5 marks) The current account of the balance of payments records payments for the sale and purchase of goods and services, as well as the country’s net income from trade. A current account deficit is when the value of export goods and services is less than the value of imported goods and services. A surplus occurs when the value of exported goods and services exceeds the value of imports. With reference to Table 1, compare the UK’s balance of trade in goods with its current account balance and explain the reason for this difference.(10 marks) The UK’s balance of trade in goods is -$73.5 billion and the current account balance -$36.1 billion, this is a $37.4 billion difference. When comparing to America the difference is much larger as the balance of trade in goods is -$548.6 billion and the current account balance -$541.7 billion, a difference of $6.9 billion. This shows that the UK’s current account and balance of trade in goods is better than Americas as in both cases America is importing a significant larger amount than it is exporting, meaning that they have a larger deficit when compared to the UK, as well as providing less services to the rest of the world. The balance of trade in goods is often referred to as the visible trade balance and includes the value of visible goods exported minus the value of visible goods imported. The current account balance takes into consideration the trade in goods and services. The balance of trades in goods does not include the balance of trade in services, which in the UK play a large part in the current account as it is one of the financial centres of the world, this figure is positive, so in this case the current account balance is going to be less than the balance of trade in goods. Table 2 indicates that the pound sterling appreciated

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