Economy > Trade > Balance of payments > Current account balance of payments: Group totals

DEFINITION: The current account balance is the difference between a country’s current receipts from and its current payments to the rest of the world. These current transactions consist of exports and imports of goods; exports and imports of services such as tourism, international freight and passenger transport, insurance and financial services; income consisting of wages and salaries, dividends, interest and other property income; and transfers.

Note that property income includes retained earnings of foreign-owned subsidiaries. All earnings of foreign-owned subsidiaries are treated as if they were remitted abroad and the part which is actually retained in the country where the subsidiary is located is then shown as a re-investment flow in the capital account.