However, in addition to buying and selling goods and services in the world market, it is also possible to buy and sell financial assets, and these are recorded separately in the financial account. The UK's annual position on its financial account is usually positive. A further qualifying remark regarding foreign trade is to recognise that balances of payment figures are notoriously difficult to record accurately and, of all the statistics shown in Table 7.1, the balance of payments estimates is subject to the biggest amendments. In practice, therefore, statistics relating to the external balance need to be considered in a broader historical context.