Balance of payments accounts

The balance of payments records the flow of economic transactions between the residents of a given country and the residents of other countries during a certain period of time. It is a statistical statement for given period showing transactions in goods, services and income between an economy and rest of the world, changes of ownership and other changes in that economy's monetary gold. Special Drawing Rights and claims on the liabilities to the rest of the world, capital transfers and unrequited transfers and counterpart entries that are needed to balance, in the accounting sense, any entries for the foregoing transactions and changes which are not mutually offsetting.