ABSTRACT
Prompted by reports from such international organizations as the IMF, the Western press has bombarded its readers with stories of the US massive current account deficits and the equally enormous surpluses enjoyed by Germany and Japan. Even in the unemotional language of an international bureaucracy, the IMF refers to these current account imbalances as 'large' (World Economic Outlook 1986: 7; World Economic Outlook 1987: 9; World Economic Outlook 1988: 1; World Economic Outlook 1989: 1; World Economic Outlook 1990: 2). As a percentage of GDP, however, Table 3.1 shows that these imbalances are relatively modest compared with those experienced by some of the developing countries over the period 1972-89.
