Suppose an American business owner purchases chocolates from Belgium in order to sell them in her shops. This would be entered as a item under the section of the U. S. current account. Consider the goods and services balance. According to the table, the United States is running a trade . The current account balance suggests that U. S. current account transactions (exports and imports of goods and services, as well as inflow and outflow of investment income and transfers) created outpayments of foreign currencies from the United States that were the inpayments of foreign currencies to the United States.

Any surplus or deficit in one account must be offset by deficits or surpluses in other balance-of-payments accounts. Because the current account is in , the excess of foreign currency held by Americans must either be loaned to foreigners or used to buy foreign stocks or bonds. All of these transactions are then recorded in the account. Since any imbalance in one account automatically leads to an equal, but opposite, imbalance in the other, the balance of payments is always