What are the main items in the balance of payments?

According to the methods and contents stipulated by the International Monetary Fund, the balance of payments includes current account, capital account, errors and omissions.

1, the balance of payments is a statistical report, which systematically records the economic transactions of an economy with other parts of the world in a specific period. It can be divided into narrow balance of payments and broad balance of payments.

2. The 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 of time (one year, one quarter or one month) due to various foreign exchanges and the need for immediate settlement of foreign exchange. During the reporting period, all transactions involving foreign exchange receipts and payments belong to the category of international payments.

3. The generalized balance of payments refers to the foreign exchange generated by all international economic transactions in a country (or region) within a certain period of time (one year, one quarter or one month). 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.

Extended data:

The balance of payments in the United States is a bookkeeping process, which can be used by families or enterprises to record income and expenses. In the balance of payments, the foreign capital flowing into the United States is income, which is recorded as a positive number. Income includes capital inflows from the purchase of goods and services produced in the United States (American exports), the acquisition of American assets (capital inflows) and gifts received by American residents (unilateral transfers).

The funds flowing from the United States to foreigners are expenditures, and expenditures are recorded with a negative sign. Expenditure includes:

(1) Purchase of foreign goods and services (import);

(2) the monetary expenditure (capital outflow) of American households or enterprises that buy foreign assets;

(3) Gifts for foreigners, including foreign aid (unilateral transfer). The main components of the balance of payments account outline transactions related to the purchase and sale of goods and services (current account balance, including trade balance) and capital flows related to international lending (financial account balance, including official settlement).

Every international transaction represents the exchange of goods, services or assets between families, enterprises or governments. Therefore, the two sides of the exchange must always keep a balance. In other words, the income and expenditure of the balance of payments account must be equal to 0, or the current account balance+financial account balance =0.

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