International Transactions Accounts (ITA) · Balance on current account and on goods and services, primary income and secondary income, quarterly, seasonally adjusted
Does the US pay more to the rest of the world than it receives?
The quarter ended : this page lists 4 lines.
Current account balance, its parts, each quarter
- Goods and services-199.8-374.8 to -112.4
- Primary income-11.4-28.6 to 73.0
- Secondary income-34.8-70.6 to -20.4
Each row is one line of the page over the last ten years, one quarter to a point, on a scale shared by the rows of the tab, with its newest value and its range printed beside it and a dashed line at zero. A gap is a quarter with no value. Pointing at the chart shows the quarter and the value.
Observed .
Understanding current account
Where it stands today
What do the lines of this page measure?
The current account is the part of the balance of payments that adds up what the United States receives from the rest of the world, and what it pays to it, for goods, services, income and transfers. Its balance is the sum of the balance on goods and services, the balance on primary income and the balance on secondary income. A negative balance is a net payment to the rest of the world and a positive balance a net receipt.
Read more
Primary income is what the owners of work and assets earn abroad: the pay of cross-border workers and, mostly, the income on investments, such as interest, dividends and profits. Secondary income is current transfers with nothing received in return, such as gifts, foreign aid and money that workers send home. The balance on goods and services is the trade balance, which has its own page.
What 500metrics adds: the change over a year of every line, ranked across the page; the last ten years of every line as rows of small charts; and a table of the change over a year in each of the last eight quarters.
The numbers behind the chart
What is the latest value of each line?4 lines, in the sections of the page
| Line | Section | Quarter | Value | Change over a year | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Current account balance | Current account | $−246.0 billion | n/a | n/a | |
| Goods and services | Its parts | $−199.8 billion | n/a | n/a | |
| Primary income | Its parts | $−11.4 billion | n/a | n/a | |
| Secondary income | Its parts | $−34.8 billion | n/a | n/a |
The table scrolls sideways; the first column stays in place.
What do these figures leave out, and how are they cited?Limits, dates and how to cite
What this number cannot tell you
- BEA publishes a quarter about three months after it ends, and revises past quarters in later releases and in an annual update. This page shows the newest estimate of every quarter, so an earlier quarter can differ from the figure first published.
- Each value is the total of one quarter, seasonally adjusted. It is not an annual rate: a year is about four of these quarters.
- Each balance is receipts less payments. The three parts add up to the current account balance to within rounding. The capital account and the financial account, which BEA's tables show beside the current account, are not on this page.
- A percent change is not shown where the value a year earlier was zero or below, as a percent of such a number is not defined; a balance that is negative shows none.
- The changes and the ranks are ours, worked out from the values BEA publishes; a change is in percent.
- This product uses the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) Data API but is not endorsed or certified by BEA.
Observed . Checked .
How to cite this
U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, International Transactions Accounts and International Investment Position, Balance on current account and on goods and services, primary income and secondary income, quarterly, seasonally adjusted, through the second quarter of 2026. Compiled by 500metrics, "Does the US pay more to the rest of the world than it receives?", https://500metrics.com/current-account.
Can the data be downloaded?current-account.csv
Download the last ten years of every line as CSV: 164 rows, to , 7,986 bytes.
Our text and compilation: CC BY 4.0.
Page updated