The balance of payments, also known as balance of international payments and abbreviated B.O.P. or BOP, of a country is the record of all economic transactions between the residents of the country and the rest of the world in a particular period of time (over a quarter of a year or more commonly over a year). The balance of payments is a summary of all monetary transactions between a country and rest of the world. These transactions are made by individuals, firms and government bodies. Thus the balance of payments includes all external visible and non-visible transactions of a country. It is an important issue to be studied, especially in international financial management field, for a few reasons.