Univ.-Prof. Dr. Gerhard Merk, Dipl.rer.pol., Dipl.rer.oec.English-language economic definitions generated from approved international institutional sources.
The capital account tracks cross-border changes arising from one-time transfers that affect wealth, such as debt forgiveness or investment grants, together with purchases and sales of non-produced assets like natural-resource rights, licenses, and patents. It excludes routine trade and ordinary financial investment flows.
BPM6 establishes internationally harmonized rules for measuring an economy’s external accounts. It covers cross-border flows, such as trade and financial transactions, as well as the foreign assets and liabilities recorded in the international investment position. Governments and central banks use these rules to produce comparable indicators of an economy’s external financial conditions.