National Income Accounting and the Balance of Payments

• Microeconomics

•          It studies the effective use of scarce resources from the perspective of individual firms and consumers.

• Macroeconomics

•          It studies how economies’ overall levels of employment, production, and growth are determined.

•          It emphasizes four aspects of economic life:

–        Unemployment

–        Saving

–        Trade imbalances

–        Money and the price level

• The national income accounts and the balance of payments accounts are essential tools for studying the macroeconomics of open, interdependent economies.
• National income accounting

•          Records all the expenditures that contribute to a country’s income and output

• Balance of payments accounting

•          Helps us keep track of both changes in a country’s indebtedness to foreigners and the fortunes of its export- and import-competing industries

• National Product and National Income

•          National Income

–        It is earned over a period by its factors of production.

–        It must equal the GNP a country generates over some period of time.

–        One person’s spending is another’s income (i.e., total spending must equal total income).

• Capital Depreciation, International Transfers, and Indirect Business Taxes

•          Adjustments to the definition of GNP:

–        Depreciation of capital

–        It reduces the income of capital owners.

–        It must be subtracted from GNP (to get the net national product).

–        Net unilateral transfers of income

–        They are part of a country’s income but are not part of its product.

–        They must be added to the net national product.

–        Indirect business taxes

–        They are sales taxes.

–        They must be subtracted from GNP.

• Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

•          It measures the volume of production within a country’s borders.

•          It equals GNP minus net receipts of factor income from the rest of the world.

•          It does not correct for the portion of countries’ production carried out using services provided by foreign-owned capital.

• Consumption

•          The portion of GNP purchased by the private sector to fulfill current wants

• Investment

•          The part of output used by private firms to produce future output

• Government Purchases

•          Any goods and services purchased by federal, state, or local governments

• The National Income Identity for an Open Economy

•          It is the sum of domestic and foreign expenditure on the goods and services produced by domestic factors of production:

                         Y = C + I + G + EX – IM                 (12-1)

                where:

–        Y is GNP

–        C is consumption

–        I is investment

–        G is government purchases

–        EX is exports

–        IM is imports

•          In a closed economy, EX = IM = 0.

• An Imaginary Open Economy

•          Assumptions of the model:

–        There is an economy, Agraria, that can only produce wheat.

–        Each citizen of Agraria is both a consumer and a farmer of wheat.

–        The Agrarian government appropriates part of the crop to feed its army.

–        Agraria can import milk from the rest of the world in exchange for exports of wheat.

–        The price of milk is 0.5 bushel of wheat per gallon, and at this price Agrarians want to consume 40 gallons of milk.

Table 12-1: National Income Accounts for Agraria, an Open Economy                              (bushels of wheat)

• The Current Account and Foreign Indebtedness

•          Current account (CA) balance

–        The difference between exports of goods and services and imports of goods and services (CA = EX – IM)

–        A country has a CA surplus when its CA > 0.

–        A country has a CA deficit when its CA < 0.

–        CA measures the size and direction of international borrowing.

–        A country’s current account balance equals the change in its net foreign wealth.

•          CA balance is equal to the difference between national income and domestic residents’ spending:

Y – (C+ I + G) = CA

–        CA balance is goods production less domestic demand. 

–        CA balance is the excess supply of domestic financing.

Example: Agraria imports 20 bushels of wheat and exports only 10 bushels of wheat (Table 12-1). The current account deficit of 10 bushels is the value of Agraria’s borrowing from foreigners, which the country will have to repay in the future.

• Saving and the Current Account

•          National saving (S)

–        The portion of output, Y, that is not devoted to household consumption, C, or government purchases, G.

–        It always equals investment in a closed economy.

–        A closed economy can save only by building up its capital stock (S = I).

–        An open economy can save either by building up its capital stock or by acquiring foreign wealth (S = I + CA).

–        A country’s CA surplus is referred to as its net foreign investment.

• Private and Government Saving

•          Private saving (S^p)

–        The part of disposable income that is saved rather than consumed

    S^p = I + CA – S^g = I + CA – (T – G) = I + CA + (G – T)    (12-2)

–        T is the government's “income” (its net tax revenue)

–        S^g is government savings (T-G)

•          Government budget deficit (G – T)

–        It measures the extent to which the government is borrowing to finance its expenditures.

The Balance of Payments Accounts

• A country’s balance of payments accounts keep track of both its payments to and its receipts from foreigners.
• Every international transaction automatically enters the balance of payments twice: once as a credit (+) and once as a debit (-).

• Three types of international transactions are recorded in the balance of payments:

•          Exports or imports of goods or services

•          Purchases or sales of financial assets

•          Transfers of wealth between countries

–        They are recorded in the capital account.

• Examples of Paired Transactions

•          A U.S. citizen buys a $1000 typewriter from an Italian company, and the Italian company deposits the $1000 in its account at Citibank in New York.

–        That is, the U.S. trades assets for goods.

–        This transaction creates the following two offsetting entries in the U.S. balance of payments:

§  It enters the U.S. CA with a negative sign (-$1000).

§  It shows up as a $1000 credit in the U.S. financial account.

•          A U.S. citizen pays $200 for dinner at a French restaurant in France by charging his Visa credit card.

–        That is, the U.S. trades assets for services.

–        This transaction creates the following two offsetting entries in the U.S. balance of payments:

§  It enters the U.S. CA with a negative sign (-$200).

§  It shows up as a $200 credit in the U.S. financial account.

•          A U.S. citizen buys a $95 newly issued share of stock in the United Kingdom oil giant British Petroleum (BP) by using a check drawn on his stockbroker money market account. BP deposits the $95 in its own U.S. bank account at Second Bank of Chicago.

–        That is, the U.S. trades assets for assets.

–        This transaction creates the following two offsetting entries in the U.S. balance of payments:

§  It enters the U.S. financial account with a negative sign (-$95).

§  It shows up as a $95 credit in the U.S. financial account.

•          A U.S. bank forgives $5000 in debt owed to it by the government of Bygonia.

–        This transaction creates the following two offsetting entries in the U.S. balance of payments:

§  It enters the U.S. capital account with a negative sign (-$5000).

§  It shows up as a $5000 credit in the U.S. financial account.

• The Fundamental Balance of Payments Identity

•          Any international transaction automatically gives rise to two offsetting entries in the balance of payments resulting in a fundamental identity:

Current account + financial account + capital account = 0   (12-3)

• The Current Account, Once Again

•          The balance of payments accounts divide exports and imports into three categories:

–        Merchandise trade

–        Exports or imports of goods

–        Services

–        Payments for legal assistance, tourists’ expenditures, and shipping fees

–        Income

International interest and dividend payments and the earnings of domestically owned firms operating abroad

• The Capital Account

•          It records asset transfers and tends to be small for the United States. (debt forgiveness, the transfer of goods and financial assets by migrants leaving or entering a country, the transfer of ownership on fixed assets, the transfer of funds received to the sale or acquisition of fixed assets, gift and inheritance taxes, death levies, patents, copyrights, royalties and uninsured damage to fixed assets.

• The Financial Account

•          It measures the difference between sales of assets to foreigners and purchases of assets located abroad. (government-owned assets (i.e., special drawing rights at the (IMF) or foreign reserves), private sector assets held in other countries, local assets held by foreigners (government and private), foreign direct investment, global monetary flows related to investment in business, real estate, bonds and stocks.

§  Financial inflow (capital inflow)

§  A loan from the foreigners with a promise that they will be repaid

§  Financial outflow (capital outflow)

§  A transaction involving the purchase of an asset from foreigners

• The Statistical Discrepancy

•          Data associated with a given transaction may come from different sources that differ in coverage, accuracy, and timing.

§  This makes the balance of payments accounts seldom balance in practice.

§  Account keepers force the two sides to balance by adding to the accounts a statistical discrepancy.

§  It is very difficult to allocate this discrepancy among the current, capital, and financial accounts.

• Official Reserve Transactions

•          Central bank

§  The institution responsible for managing the supply of money

•          Official international reserves

§  Foreign assets held by central banks as a cushion against national economic misfortune

•          Official foreign exchange intervention

§  Central banks often buy or sell international reserves in private asset markets to affect macroeconomic conditions in their economies.

•          Official settlements balance (balance of payments)

§  The book-keeping offset to the balance of official reserve transactions

§  It is the sum of the current account balance, the capital account balance, the nonreserve portion of the financial account balance, and the statistical discrepancy.

§  Example: The U.S. balance of payments in 2000 was -$35.6 billion, that is, the balance of official reserve transactions with its sign reversed.

§  A country with a negative balance of payments may signal that it is running down its international reserve assets or incurring debts to foreign monetary authorities.

Summary

• A country’s GNP is equal to the income received by its factors of production.

•          GDP is equal to GNP less net receipts of factor income from abroad, measures the output produced within a country’s territorial borders.

• In a closed economy, GNP must be consumed, invested, or purchased by the government.

•          In an open economy, GNP equals the sum of consumption, investment, government purchases, and net exports of goods and services.

• All transactions between a country and the rest of the world are recorded in its balance of payments accounts.
• The current account equals the country’s net lending to foreigners.

•          National saving equals domestic investment plus the current account.

•          Transactions involving goods and services appear in the current account of the balance of payments, while international sales or purchases of assets appear in the financial account.

• The capital account records asset transfers and tends to be small in the United States.
• Any current account deficit must be matched by an equal surplus in the other two accounts of the balance of payments, and any current account surplus by a deficit somewhere else.
• International asset transactions carried out by central banks are included in the financial account.