Why the Capital Account Matters

Abstract

Most discussion of the balance of payments and its implications for exchange-rate prospects and economic policy falls into two distinct categories. Some authors focus on the current account alone while others argue that in a world of liberalised capital markets information from the volume of trade flows will simply be swamped by flows of highly mobile international capital. In this note we argue that both these viewpoints are too extreme; in aggregate both the current and capital accounts will matter.