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WEOmoderator
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Re : Current account surplus
Good question. Here is the answer from our database FAQ:
A. In principle, since one country's export is another country's import, current account balances across the world should sum to zero. In practice, however, this is not the case. While a discrepancy is difficult to analyze by its very nature, there is broad agreement that the global current account discrepancy likely reflects in part the following economic factors:
-transportation lags, if exports are recorded in one year, while the corresponding imports are not recorded until the next;
-underreporting of investment income, partly related to tax evasion and the growth of offshore centers;
-asymmetric valuation, where the export and import of the same good are valued at different prices; and
-data quality issues, especially for transportation services and workers' remittances.
| 5/8/2008 9:16:11 AM |
