The paper scrutinizes the determinants of global and intra-European current account imbalances, which have continued to grow since the turn of the millennium up to the recent crisis. For Europe, the reasons of the current account imbalances are identified to originate in the German attempts to...

The paper analyses the role of fiscal and monetary policy for the development of the current account imbalances in the euro area, including the most recent developments during the coronavirus crisis. Several financial transmission channels such as international bank lending, changes in TARGET2...

Low international competitiveness of a set of euro area countries, which have become evident by large current account deficits and rising risk premiums on government bonds, is one of the most challenging economic policy issues for Europe. We analyse the role of private restructuring and public...

Since the breakdown of the Bretton Woods System diverging current account positions in Europe have prevailed. While the Southern and Western European countries have tended to run current account deficits, the current accounts of the Central and Northern European countries, in particular Germany,...

In the current debate on the reasons and implications of the Greek and Irish euro crisis, the intra-European current account imbalances have gained rising attention. Whereas Greece and Ireland struggle for austerity in private and public spending, Germany is urged to reduce its current account...

Das Papier untersucht die Triebkräfte globaler und europäischer Leistungsbilanzungleichgewichte, die sich seit der Jahrtausendwende bis zur jüngsten Krise kontinuierlich vergrößert haben. Für Europa werden die Ursachen der Ungleichgewichte in den Bemühungen Deutschlands identifiziert nach...

The paper discusses global current account imbalances in the context of an asymmetric world monetary system and asymmetric current account developments. It identifies the US and Germany as center countries with rising / high current account deficits (US) and surpluses (Germany). These are...