balance of payments

American  

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.

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balance of payments British  

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

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balance of payments Cultural  

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

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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.)

Etymology

Origin of balance of payments

First recorded in 1835–45

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

balance of payments

The balance of payments gap - which tracks the flow of money into and out of the country - has crossed $70bn.

From BBC ● May 14, 2026

Nixon imposed a global 10% tariff to stanch the deteriorating U.S. balance of payments.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 8, 2026

When those are factored in, the U.S. actual balance of payments is about 0.2% of the country’s gross domestic product, a figure the suit calls “essentially a rounding error.”

From Barron's ● Mar. 5, 2026

Turning to the arcane economic terminology of international accounting, the balance of payments is a complete ledger of all economic transactions between the U.S. and the rest of the world.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 24, 2026

Eventually, though, Lefty began to understand the difference between five-card draw and seven-card stud, and gradually the balance of payments around the table began to shift.

From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides

Related Words

• balance of trade
• bop
• trade balance
• trade deficit