Cash Junction

Cash Junction: the current account, exports, imports, visibles and invisibles for Edexcel IGCSE Economics

This free game is part of our Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Economics (4EC1) course for exams in EXAM YEARS 2027-2030.

Follow the money on a harbour railway

Cash Junction is a free 3D game about the current account of the balance of payments for Pearson Edexcel International GCSE Economics (4EC1). It covers specification point 2.1.1 (d): the definition of the current account on the balance of payments, current account deficits and surpluses, and trade in goods (visibles) and services (invisibles).

You run the money railway at the Trade Desk in the harbour city of Lorvane. Every time the country trades with the rest of the world, something happens in the harbour: a container ship sails away with Lorvane’s cars, a tanker brings oil in, a ferry arrives with tourists, a bank tower lights up. Then the payment rolls out of the Trade Desk on a cart of gold coins, and you throw the rail switches to send it the right way. Ravi, the Trade Desk controller, talks you through each new idea on the radio.

Money IN or money OUT?

The first switch asks the big question: does the money come in to the country, or go out to the rest of the world? Money coming in sends the cart left, where the coins pile up in a vault yard. Money going out sends it right, to the piers, where a boat carries the coins away across the sea. This is the idea students find hardest to see in a textbook: when Lorvane sells cars abroad, the cars leave, but the buyers pay Lorvane, so money comes in. That makes it an export (a credit). When Lorvane buys oil, the oil arrives, but Lorvane pays, so money goes out: an import (a debit). The trick the game teaches is to ignore which way the ship sails and ask who pays whom.

Tourism is the classic exam trap. Tourists from abroad come into the country and spend money in its hotels, so money comes in: an invisible export, even though nothing leaves. When the country’s own families go on holiday abroad, their money goes out: an invisible import.

Goods or services? Visibles and invisibles

From round 2 every cart needs a second switch: goods or services? Goods are things you can touch, such as cars, oil, wheat, clothes and mobile phones, and trade in goods is called visibles. Services cannot be touched, such as tourism, banking, insurance, education and shipping, and trade in services is called invisibles. Invisibles count in the current account just like goods. A shipping firm that carries another country’s goods is selling a service, not the goods themselves.

A live board shows the current account as the lesson’s table: exports and imports of goods and services, and the balance = exports − imports. Every import visibly pushes the balance down. A positive balance is a surplus, a negative balance is a deficit, and zero means the account is in balance.

Three rounds, built on the lesson’s worked examples

Round 1 is goods only, so you can focus on which way the money goes, and Ravi works out the balance with you at the end. In round 2 services join in, and the trades add up to the lesson’s Lorvane example: a deficit on goods (80 − 95 = −15) but a bigger surplus on services (45 − 20 = +25), so the current account is +10 billion, a surplus. You calculate it yourself. Round 3 is rush hour in Mestia: carts come thick and fast, you can set switches while they roll, and right answers in a row build a combo. Mestia’s figures give a current account deficit of −10 billion.

Wrong switches send the cart into a barrier, then a short explanation with a “Why not?” and a link to the lesson appears, and you try again. The game ends with an exam corner question on defining the current account, then a report with your rank, best score and the current accounts you built. It takes about 8 minutes, works with a mouse, a touch screen or the arrow keys, needs no login and runs on school Chromebooks.