"Functional Interconnections in an Open Economy"

1. Macroeconomics consists of four main sectors of economic activity – real, budgetary, monetary and external. The main relationships between sectors are most clearly defined through the System of National Accounts, a set of internationally accepted rules for the accounting of economic activity. The basis of accounting is institutional units (non-financial corporations, households, non-profit institutions, government agencies, financial corporations) that can own goods and assets, have economic obligations and on their own behalf carry out transactions with other agents. the value of any indicator at a given point in time. The main macroeconomic indicators are recorded on current, savings or balance sheet accounts.

2. Residents shall be all institutional units permanently located in the territory of a given country, regardless of their citizenship or ownership of capital. Non-residents are all institutional units permanently located in the territory of a foreign state, even if they are branches of the institutional units of this country. Residents and non-residents carry out international economic transactions-transactions in which ownership of tangible or financial assets is transferred or services are provided. The accounts of the external sector reflect all transactions between residents and non-residents. The classification of types of international economic transactions in the SNA is close to the classification of balance of payments items. Based on the general theory of international economics, they view trade in goods separately from trade in services and separately from the movement of capital and other factors of production.

3. There is a direct relationship between the external sector, on the one hand, and the real, monetary and public sectors, on the other. There is an international element in the accounts of each of the sectors, which is reflected in the external sector in the balance of payments account. The relationship between the real and external sectors is that the balance of domestic income and expenditure, savings and investment is reflected in the current account balance. If the total income of residents is greater than their total expenses or savings exceed domestic investments, the current account balance is positive; if the total income of residents is less than their total expenses or domestic investments exceed savings, the current account balance is negative, there is a deficit. The relationship between the monetary and external sectors lies in the fact that, since the sources of international financing of the current account deficit are capital inflows from abroad and/ or the use of international government reserves, every operation of the banking system with foreign assets is reflected in the country’s balance of payments – in the capital account or in the general balance sheet. The relationship between the budgetary and external sectors is expressed in the attraction of external sources of financing the budget deficit in the form of loans to the government from other governments and international financial organizations, which are reflected in the account of operations with the capital of the balance of payments.

4. The cash flow matrix functionally links all the main domestic sectors of the economy, and shows their relationship with the external sector, which is manifested through the use of the external sector as one of the sources of financing the sectoral balances of the real sector (households and enterprises), the budgetary and monetary sectors. At the same time, the interaction of domestic sectors of the economy with each other does not have a significant impact on the external sector, although each of them has a direct connection with it. The universality of the external sector as a source of financing for any imbalances in other economic sectors attests to its crucial role in addressing the challenges of economic development. International economics and foreign economics, which studies the external sector taking into account its interrelations with other sectors of the economy, is a key element in the structure of macroeconomics.