What is the current account balance of a country?

Map 1. Current account balance as a ratio to gross domestic product, 2020

Current account imbalances across the world

Receipts earned by economies from transactions with other economies often differ significantly from the payments made. In 2020, for most economies in America, Africa, South-Eastern Europe, and Central and Western Asia, payments exceeded receipts, leading to negative current account balances. Higher surpluses were found mainly in Central, Northern and Eastern Europe, Eastern Asia, and Oceania. Most economies in the South of African continent also achieved positive current account balances.

In 2020, Kuwait recorded the highest current account surplus relative to GDPgross domestic product [30 per cent]. Tuvalu, Guinea, and Papua New Guinea enjoyed surpluses close to 20 per cent of their respective GDP.

In absolute terms, the United States of America [US$616 billion] and the United Kingdom [US$95 billion] ran the world’s largest current account deficits. China [US$274 billion] had the largest absolute surplus, followed by Germany [US$266 billion] and Japan [US$164 billion].

Recent developments

In 2020, the current account surplus of developing economies doubled [US$438 billion] compared with 2019 [US$213 billion], although their surplus of trade in goods and services showed a slight decrease [from US$335 million to US$317 million]. Geographically, the increase in the current account balance can largely be attributed to a growing surplus in developing economies of Asia and Oceania [from US$406 billion to US$531 billion], combined with a shrinking deficit in developing economies in America [from US$102 billion to US$2 billion]. The current account surplus of developed economies fell to only US$5 billion in 2020, from US$197 billion recorded for the year before.

Figure 1. Balances in the current account

[Billions of United States dollars]

Note: Current account deficits and surpluses do not add up to zero at the world level, due to imperfect geographic coverage and cross-country differences in compilation methods.

Least developed countries keep lowering their deficit

Figure 2. Balances in least developed countries’ current accounts

[Billions of United States dollars]

After five years of continuous decline, the current account balance of LDCsleast developed countries shows an increasing trend since 2015, resulting in a reduction of their deficit by almost a half, from US$60 billion to US$33 billion. The trade deficit has nevertheless remained at around US$100 billion.

Greater relative current account deficit, accounting for 2.9 per cent of GDP in 2020, distinguishes LDCs from other developing economies, which, as a group, ran a surplus of 1.3 per cent of GDP. Higher deficits relative to GDP were registered for the groups of heavily indebted poor countries [HIPCsheavily indebted poor countries] [4.2 per cent] and landlocked developing countries [LLDCslandlocked developing countries] [3.2 per cent]. As a group, small island developing States [SIDSsmall island developing States] registered a comfortable 7 per cent surplus. Yet, some SIDS faced deficits close to, or over, 20 per cent of GDP.

Concepts and definitions

The current account, within the balance of payments, displays the transactions between residents and non-residents of a reporting economy, involving economic values, namely the cross-national exchange of goods and services as well as cross-national transfers of primary and secondary income.

The current account balance shows the difference between the sum of exports and income receivable, and the sum of imports and income payable, where exports and imports refer to both goods and services, while income refers to both primary and secondary income. A surplus in the current account is recorded when receipts exceed payments; a deficit is recorded when payments exceed receipts.

The current account data in this section correspond to the latest reporting standard, known as BPM6Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual, Sixth Edition, defined by the -—
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Summary tables

Table 1. Current account balance by group of economies

Note: Current account deficits and surpluses do not add up to zero across groups of economies, due to imperfect geographic coverage and cross-country differences in compilation methods.

Table 2. Current account balance in largest surplus and deficit economies

Table 3. Current accounts of leading exporters [goods and services] by group of economies, 2020

[Percentage]

Developed economies

Developing economies

Developing economies: Africa

Developing economies: America

Developing economies: Asia and Oceania

References

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What is current account balance of India?

India Current Account recorded a deficit of 23.9 USD bn in Jun 2022, compared with a deficit of 13.4 USD bn in the previous quarter. India Current Account Balance: USD mn data is updated quarterly, available from Jun 1949 to Jun 2022, with an averaged value of -344.2 USD mn.

Which country has the highest current account balance?

By CAB.

What does a country's current account include?

The nation's current account is its imports, exports, net income, asset income, and direct transfers. A positive current account means the nation earns more than it spends. A negative account means it spends more than it earns.

What does it mean when a country has a negative current account balance?

Measuring the current account A deficit then means that the country is importing more goods and services than it is exporting—although the current account also includes net income [such as interest and dividends] and transfers from abroad [such as foreign aid], which are usually a small fraction of the total.