Current Account Balance

The current account balance is the broadest measure of a country's transactions with the rest of the world, combining the trade balance in goods and services with net income from investments abroad (such as dividends and interest) and net current transfers (such as remittances and foreign aid), published quarterly in the United States by the Bureau of Economic Analysis and compiled by national statistical agencies and the International Monetary Fund worldwide under a standardized balance-of-payments framework. A persistent current account deficit means a country is a net borrower from the rest of the world, financed by capital inflows recorded in the corresponding financial account, and large or rapidly widening current account deficits have historically been an early warning sign ahead of several emerging-market financial crises.