The United Kingdom has earned a surplus on its invisible transactions with the rest of the world as far back as the records go (apart from one brief interruption just after the Second World War). The significance of this surplus in recent years can be judged from the current account balance. In only two years of the last ten were surpluses earned on visible trade; yet, thanks to the invisible surplus, the current account as a whole - which is the most commonly accepted measure of the country's ability to 'pay its way' was in surplus in six of them.
The United Kingdoms invisible account 1962-72