Memo: Commission publishes report on current account surpluses in the EU

Macroeconomic imbalances in the euro area and in the EU expanded significantly in the run-up to the financial crisis. The imbalances manifested themselves in significant and persistent divergence in the current accounts of EU Member States. Although the current account of the euro area, as a whole, remained broadly balanced, current account deficits deteriorated significantly in some Member States, while surpluses increased substantially in others.
From the macroeconomic viewpoint, the deficits in the euro area were thus financed by the surpluses in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, Austria and Luxembourg. Outside the monetary union, Denmark and Sweden also ran important surpluses.

A similar accumulation of external imbalances was observed on a global scale. For example, the United States ran persistent current account deficits, while China and Japan registered persistent surpluses. Notwithstanding the intra-euro area rebalancing underway, the current account surpluses and deficits recorded by some EU countries are still high.

The objective of this special analytical report is to analyse the persistently large current account surpluses in a number of Member States. In particular, the report explores whether the large surpluses in several EU Member States have been optimal from their own perspective, whether there is a link between surpluses and deficits in the euro area and whether there is a sustainable rebalancing in the euro area (and the EU) underway.

European Commission: SPEECH/12/969: Current Account Surpluses in the EU and the 2012 Fiscal Sustainability Report: Rebalancing for Sustainable Growth http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_SPEECH-12-969_en.htm

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