The document defines and explains the balance of payments (BOP) of a country. The BOP is a systematic record of all economic transactions between residents of a country and foreign countries over a period of time. It is recorded using double-entry bookkeeping. The BOP has two broad categories - the current account, which covers exports/imports of goods and services, and the capital account, which covers transactions that affect a country's total stock of capital. It provides useful data for analyzing a country's economic strengths and weaknesses in international trade.