balance of payments

See synonyms for balance of payments on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. the difference between a nation's total payments to foreign countries, including movements of capital and gold, investments, tourist spending, etc., and its total receipts from foreign countries.

Origin of balance of payments

1
First recorded in 1835–45

Words Nearby balance of payments

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use balance of payments in a sentence

  • For balance-of-payments reasons, Japan closely controls its receipts and expenditures of foreign exchange.

    East-West Trade Trends | Harold E. Stassen

British Dictionary definitions for balance of payments

balance of payments

noun
  1. the difference over a given time between total payments to foreign nations, arising from imports of goods and services and transfers abroad of capital, interest, grants, etc, and total receipts from foreign nations, arising from exports of goods and services and transfers from abroad of capital, interest, grants, etc

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Cultural definitions for balance of payments

balance of payments

The relationship between the payments made by one nation to all other nations and its receipts from all other nations.

Notes for balance of payments

A nation whose payments exceed its receipts is said to be running an unfavorable balance of payments, which can affect the value of its currency in foreign countries. (See foreign exchange.)

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.