In: Economics
A U.S. book publisher sells $20,000 of books to a Chinese firm. the firm pays for the books by using its Chinese based credit card company.
Vlad, a Russian citizen, working in New York, earned $6,000 last year working at a factory owned by a US company
In the case of US book publisher, the current account will get affected because exporting of merchandise goods is taking place. The US firm will get debited with $20,000 dollar worth of books and credited with equivalent Chinese Yuan ($20,000 worth Chinese Yuan in current exchange rate) I from the Chinese credit card company. The credit card company will have it's own form of settlement in their own country.
A Russian citizen earning $6,000 will be considered as domestic income of US but not in the national income of US. Part of this $6000 can go back to Russia in form of remittance which will be a unilateral transfer from the Current Account of BoP of US. The amount sent will be debited from the current Account of US. The sending of USD to Russia will create an equal amount of claim on Russian economy in form of claim on stock or any other purchase. This will be credited to US current account in BoP.
Two transactions always take place because Balance of Payments is a double entry book keeping system.