Balance of payments
What Balance of payments means in Economics A-Level, as defined for AQA.
Definitions of Balance of payments
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Reference: AQA
The current account is part of this and comprises trade in goods, trade in services, primary income and secondary income.
Records all financial transactions between a country and the rest of the world, and always sums to zero overall.
Disequilibria in this are automatically adjusted by floating exchange rate systems.
Topics that use Balance of payments
- Exchange rate systems (AQA A-Level)
- The balance of payments (AQA A-Level)
Related terms
- Hot money flows
- International trade
- Appreciation
- Asymmetric economic shock
- Capital account
- Competitiveness
- Currency union
- Current account
Using Balance of payments in the exam
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