Basic Balance

In order to determine the connection between the quantity of money entering the country and the quantity sent out to other nations, economists will calculate something called the "Basic Balance." It measures, or balances, the "current account" balance (net quantity of a country's surplus income or deficit spending) and the "capital account" balance (net change in foreign asset ownership).

It's primarily used to determine how a nation's balance of payments is trending in the long-term. An advantage to the Basic Balance calculation is that short-term variations in exchange and interest rates have very little effect on it, as it is geared more towards tracking a country's productivity changes over longer periods of time.