Maintaining a balance of payments with the rest of the world is a macro-economic objective. In simple terms, if the balance of payments balances, then the combined receipts from selling goods and services abroad, and from the return on investments abroad, equals the combined expenditure on imports of goods and services, and investment income going abroad.
The balance of payments is also an official account of international payments, published in a document called the Pink Book. Statistics on UK imports and exports have been gathered in the UK since 1687.
As an official record, the balance of payments is broken down into two
basic accounts - the current account, and the capital and financial account.
The current account is made up of the following payments:
These items include the import and export of finished goods, such as cars, and computers; semi-finished goods, such as parts and components for assembly, and commodities, such as oil, tea and coffee.
Trade services include
financial services, tourism, and consultancy.
Investment income refers to any income made from investing abroad,
and includes profits, such as those from business activities of
subsidiaries located abroad; interest received from UK financial
investments and loans abroad, and dividends from owning shares in
overseas firms
The final section of the current account includes transfer payments
(transfers) arising from
gifts between residents of different countries, donations to charities
abroad, and overseas aid
Current Account |
£ million |
2015 |
|
Credits |
|
| Exports of goods and services | |
| Exports of goods | 287584 |
| Exports of services | 229862 |
| Total exports of goods and services | 517446 |
| Primary income | |
| Compensation of employees | 1295 |
| Investment income | 130470 |
| Other primary income | 1961 |
| Total primary income | 133726 |
| Secondary income | |
| General government | 5472 |
| Other sectors | 14417 |
| Total secondary income | 19889 |
| Total | 671061 |
Debits |
|
| Imports of goods and services | |
| Imports of goods | 407304 |
| Imports of services | 139930 |
| Total imports of goods and services | 547234 |
| Primary income | |
| Compensation of employees | 1384 |
| Investment income | 155005 |
| Other primary income | 3087 |
| Total primary income | 159472 |
| Secondary income | |
| General government | 25884 |
| Other sectors | 18704 |
| Total secondary income | 44588 |
| Total | 751294 |
Balances |
|
| Trade in goods and services | |
| Trade in goods | -119720 |
| Trade in services | 89932 |
| Total trade in goods and services | -29788 |
| Primary income | |
| Compensation of employees | -89 |
| Investment income | -24531 |
| Other primary income | -1126 |
| Total primary income | -25746 |
| Secondary income | |
| General government | -20410 |
| Other sectors | -4287 |
| Total secondary income | -24699 |
Total (Current balance) |
-80233 |
Any deficit on the Current Account will be balanced by actions on the Financial and Capital Accounts.
The Capital and Financial Account records the flows of capital and finance between the UK and the rest of the world. Types of flow include:
Real foreign direct investment (FDI), such as a UK firm establishing a manufacturing facility in China. Direct investment refers to investment in an enterprise where the owners or shareholders have some element of control of the business.
Portfolio investment, such as a UK investor buying shares in an existing business abroad. With portfolio investment, the investor has no control over the enterprise.
Financial derivatives are any financial instrument whose underlying value is based on another asset, such as a foreign currency, interest rates, commodities or indices.
Reserve assets are foreign financial assets that are controlled by monetary authorities - namely the Bank of England. These assets are used to finance deficits and deal with imbalances. Reserve assets include gold, Special Drawing Rights, and foreign exchange held by the Bank of England.
This process is often called official financing.
In theory, the Capital and Financial Account balance should be equal and ‘opposite’ to the Current Account balance so that the overall Account balances, but in practice this is only achieved by the use of a balancing item called net errors and omissions. This device compensates for various errors and omissions in the balance of payments data, and which brings the final balance of payments account to zero.
The financing of a deficit is achieved by:
Selling gold or holdings of foreign exchange, such as US
dollars, yen or euros, or:
Borrowing from other Central Banks or the
International Monetary
Fund (IMF).
A surplus will be disposed of by:
Buying gold or currencies.
Paying off debts.
With the exception of 1997, every year since 1987 has seen a deficit
on the UK Current Account. This deficit reached a peak of £98 bn in
2014.
The deficit tends to follow a cyclical pattern, as shown in the chart
below.
The trade balance just includes trade in goods and services.
It is persistent.
It forms a large share of GDP.
There are no compensating inflows of investment income or inward
capital account flows.
The Central Bank has low reserves.
The economy has a poor record of repaying debt.
In the UK, there is a strong connection between a growing economy and trade deficits. Soon after the economy went into recession in 1990, the trade deficit began to fall quickly. However, as the economy came out of recession and into a period of strong growth from 1993, the trade deficit began to rise quickly, and continued to rise through the next 15 years. It is likely that the recession that started in late 2008 will cause the deficit to fall back, as indeed the above table indicates.
There are several possible causes of a persistent current account
deficit, including the following:
If the economy grows too quickly, and rises above
its own trend rate, which in the UK is around 2.5%, then domestic
output (AS) may not be able to cope with domestic aggregate demand.
High export prices will occur if a country's inflation is higher than that of its competitors, or if its currency is over-valued which will reduce its price competitiveness.
Non-price
factors can discourage exports, such as poorly designed products,
poor marketing or a worsening reputation for reliability.
An
economy might not be producing enough from its scarce factors of
production. Labour productivity, which is defined as
output per worker, plays an important role in a country’s
competitiveness and trade performance, and the UK has suffered from poor
productivity.
The productivity gap is the gap between the UK’s relatively poor
productivity performance and that of the UK’s leading competitors.
This
could be caused by excessive long-term interest rates, or low levels
of research and development.
This involves a lack of investment in education and training, which reduce skill levels relative to competitor countries and force countries to produce low value exports.