This article, which continues an annual series, describes the main changes in external assets and liabilities recorded in 1984. It also examines changes in the pattern of capital flows in the periods before and after the abolition of exchange controls and their impact on the structure of the United Kingdom's external balance sheet. Some broad estimates of the full returns on overseas investment are made, and compared with recorded flows of interest, profits and dividends in the current account.
The external balance sheet of the United Kingdom developments to end-1984