Foreign exchange balance

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The foreign exchange account ( English foreign exchange balance ) recognized as part of the balance of the balance of payments within an economy in particular all currency - and gold stocks within a given accounting period .

General

Like all balance sheets , the foreign exchange balance sheet is a comparison of assets and liabilities . The difference between the two is called the balance , which appears on the side with the lower balance sheet items , so that the foreign exchange balance is always formally balanced. Since the foreign exchange balance sheet now only contains the Bundesbank's balance sheet items , in Germany the foreign exchange balance sheet is “the Bundesbank's foreign account”. Ultimately, the foreign exchange balance shows the currency reserves of a state.

Formally, the foreign exchange balance is a partial balance of the balance of payments. It records the Bundesbank's currency reserves and, for information purposes, the disclosure of the Bundesbank's net external assets. The foreign exchange balance contains the positions of the balance of payments with opposite signs; What is on the assets side in the balance of payments is booked on the liabilities side of the foreign exchange balance and vice versa.

content

Until 1958, the foreign exchange balance also included changes in the foreign exchange position of the commercial banks. Since then, these changes in the foreign status of commercial banks have been recorded in the financial account . Today, the foreign exchange account comprises currency and Gold stock, the reserve position in the IMF (consisting of, overdrafts and SDRs ) and liquid receivables and payables of the Federal Bank in foreign currency vis. All other accounts receivable / payable appear in the financial account.

The stocks as stock quantities result from inflows and outflows ( flow quantities ) of foreign exchange, gold and receivables / liabilities. The exports and imports recorded in the current account , for example, receive an offsetting entry in the foreign exchange balance in the form of an inflow of foreign exchange through exports and an outflow of foreign exchange through imports. If a country such as Germany is export-heavy (positive external contribution ), then - all other things being equal - both the current account and the foreign exchange account show a surplus balance.

economic aspects

A negative foreign exchange balance can either be due to a country importing net goods or exporting net capital and vice versa. With flexible exchange rates , as long as the central bank does not undertake voluntary foreign exchange market interventions, the foreign exchange balance is always balanced because the equilibrium exchange rate balances the supply and demand of foreign exchange.

Trade policy measures such as expansive export permits , stronger export orientation , import restrictions or import tariffs can offset a negative foreign exchange balance and vice versa. The strongest instrument for a chronically negative foreign exchange balance is the foreign exchange restriction .

The foreign exchange balance is a measure of the external balance . The balance of payments equilibrium implies a balanced foreign exchange balance; on the other hand, a balance of payments equilibrium cannot be inferred from a balanced foreign exchange balance.

International

The creation and content of the balance of payments as a systematic record of the economic transactions that have taken place between residents and foreigners during a certain period of time is prescribed by the International Monetary Fund . This also applies to the foreign exchange balance. In Austria, for example, the foreign exchange balance is part of the balance of payments. This lists all changes with regard to the Oesterreichische Nationalbank . In Austrian practice, the foreign exchange balance is the main source for drawing up the balance of payments; it is compiled from daily reports from the credit institutions and the National Bank on international business.

In Switzerland , a balance of payments statistics will not be published, but probably the trade and services balance and the change in reserve. The summary of the trade and services account is called the current account, to which the financial account is added to determine the foreign exchange account.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Reinhold Sellien (Ed.), Dr. Gabler's Wirtschafts-Lexikon , Volume 2, 1977, Sp. 1040
  2. ^ Alfred Stobbe, Economics Accounting , 1966, p. 213
  3. ↑ Michael Olsson / Dirk Piekenbrock, Compact Lexicon Environmental and Economic Policy , 1998, p. 411
  4. ↑ Gerhard Müller / Josef Löffelholz, Bank-Lexikon: hand dictionary for banking and savings banks, 1961, Sp. 1352
  5. ↑ Massoud Bargelame, Special Drawing Rights in the International Monetary System , 1981, p. 89
  6. ↑ Michael Olsson / Dirk Piekenbrock, Compact Lexicon Environmental and Economic Policy , 1998, p. 79
  7. ↑ Otmar Issing, Monetary Problems of Economic Policy in the EEC , 1964, p. 50
  8. ↑ Michael Olsson / Dirk Piekenbrock, Compact Lexicon Environmental and Economic Policy , 1998, p. 411
  9. ^ Rudolf Richter, National Economic Accounting , 1982, p. 79
  10. ↑ International Monetary Fund, Balance of Payments Manual , 1977, p. 1
  11. ↑ Heide Wolff, The supply of liquidity for the Swiss banking system , 1969, p. 36