All international transactions in the Balance of Payments are allocated to the Current Account, the Capital Account, and the Financial Account. These three accounts sum to zero by definition, together with a balancing item that captures any statistical discrepancies.

The next graph presents the magnitudes of the current, capital, and financial accounts.

The current account consists of the trade balance, net primary income, and net secondary income. The trade balance is the difference between exports and imports. The next graph presents the evolution of the current account balance.

Primary income is income from labor or capital (portfolio and direct investments) that is generated in one country by the residents of another country. Greece's receipts of primary income consist of labor income earned by Greek residents working abroad and income from investments abroad by Greek residents. Greece's payments of primary income consist of labor income earned by foreign residents working in Greece and income from investments in Greece by foreign residents. Long-term migrants are considered to be residents of the country where they live rather than their country of origin and, so, their earnings are not included in primary income. Their remittances, however, are included in secondary income, below. Net primary income is the difference between receipts and payments of primary income.

The next graph presents the evolution of Greece's net primary income and its breakdown in receipts and payments.

Secondary income is the income that is transferred to a country to fund current expenditures. For exampe, it includes remittances of migrant workers to their families, the transfers from each member-state to the European Union, and the transfers from the EU to member-states to fund current expenditures, e.g. subsidies to agricultural production. It does not include EU funds that finance infrastructure projects because these fall under the umbrella of capital (i.e. investment) spending and are included in the capital account. Net secondary income for Greece is the difference between all receipts of the Greek government and other sectors from abroad and all payments made abroad by the Greek government and other sectors.

The next graph presents the evolution of Greece's net secondary income and its breakdown in receipts and payments.

The capital account measures all transfers that fund capital (investment) expenditures. European Union cohesion funds that finance infrastructure investment are the most important component of the capital account.

The next graph presents the evolution of Greece's capital account and its breakdown in receipts and payments.

The financial account records the imports and exports of assets (rather than goods or services) between Greece and other countries. The most important items of the financial account are direct investment (e.g. a US firm building a factory in Greece or a Greek firm building a factory in Romania) and portfolio investment (e.g. a French bank buying Greek government bonds or a Greek mutual fund buying German stocks).

A positive financial account means that the value of Greek assets that are bought by foreign residents exceed the value of foreign assets that are bought by Greek residents and, therefore, there is a net inflow of funds to Greece. Similarly, a negative financial account means that the value of foreign assets that are bought by Greek residents exceed the value of Greek assets that are bought by foreign residents and, therefore, there is a net outflow of funds from Greece.

The flows in the financial account are typically the opposite from the flows in the current account (the capital account is usually very small).

Greece's International Investment Position equals the value of assets abroad held by Greeks minus the assets of foreigners in Greece and reflects past investments between Greece and other countries. Generally, if Greek residents invest abroad more than foreign residents invest in Greece, the IIP of Greece increases, and vice versa.

The graph shows the evolution of Greece's international investment position: