The balance of payments is a systematic record of all economic transactions between a country’s residents and the rest of the world over a given period, comprising the current account (trade in goods, services, and income) and the capital and financial accounts (investment and asset flows). It is a core macroeconomic accounting framework used to assess a country’s external economic position and currency stability. Historically it was central to the gold standard’s adjustment mechanism, where payment imbalances triggered gold flows that altered domestic money supply.