In recent decades, foreign assets and liabilities in advanced countries have grown rapidly relative to GDP, with the increase in gross cross-holdings far exceeding the size of net positions. Moreover, the portfolio equity and FDI categories have grown in importance relative to international debt...

Intro -- Contents -- I. INTRODUCTION -- II. THE MAIN STYLIZED FACTS: AGGREGATE DATA -- III. THE MAIN STYLIZED FACTS: BILATERAL DATA -- IV. CAPITAL FLOWS AND EXTERNAL ADJUSTMENT -- V. CONCLUDING REMARKS -- REFERENCES.

The period preceding the global financial crisis was characterized by a substantial widening of current account imbalances across the world. Since the onset of the crisis, these imbalances have contracted to a significant extent. In this paper, we analyze the ongoing process of external...