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Current Account Deficits: The Australian Debate

Author

Listed:
  • Rochelle Belkar
  • Lynne Cockerell
  • Christopher Kent
Abstract
This paper documents the clear change of view, which has taken place in Australia over the past three decades or so, concerning the relevance of the current account deficit for policy. Historical experience under a fixed exchange rate regime suggested that large persistent deficits were unsustainable and could leave the economy vulnerable to sudden reversals in sentiment. These concerns persisted after the floating of the Australian dollar and financial deregulation, and it was thought that all arms of policy should help to rein in the then much larger current account deficits. However, these policies were shown to be ineffective and, by the early 1990s, the argument that current account deficits represent the optimal outcomes of decisions made by ‘consenting adults’ gained wide support. This paper presents some empirical evidence consistent with optimal smoothing in the face of temporary shocks; the persistence of the deficit is attributed to a modest degree of impatience relative to the rest of the world. Although it is now widely accepted that policy should not seek to influence the current account balance, the issue of external vulnerability remains of interest. Here, country-specific considerations are important, and it is argued that the factors that have made Australia relatively resilient to external shocks are also those that helped to attract foreign capital in the first place.

Suggested Citation

  • Rochelle Belkar & Lynne Cockerell & Christopher Kent, 2007. "Current Account Deficits: The Australian Debate," Working Papers Central Bank of Chile 450, Central Bank of Chile.
    • Handle: RePEc:chb:bcchwp:450
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    Cited by:

    1. Maurice Obstfeld, 2012. "Does the Current Account Still Matter?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(3), pages 1-23, May.
    2. Chen, Shyh-Wei, 2011. "Current account deficits and sustainability: Evidence from the OECD countries," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 1455-1464, July.
    3. Federico Maria Ferrara & Jörg S Haas & Andrew Peterson & Thomas Sattler, 2022. "Exports vs. Investment: How Public Discourse Shapes Support for External Imbalances," Post-Print hal-02569351, HAL.
    4. Stephen Bell & John Quiggin, 2007. "Beyond Stop/Go?: Explaining Australia’s Long Boom," Australian Public Policy Program Working Papers WPP07_3, Risk and Sustainable Management Group, University of Queensland.
    5. Alfredo SCHCLAREK & Jiajun XU, 2020. "Exchange rate and balance of payment risks in the global development finance architecture," Working Paper 15b03057-1f7f-44dc-93fa-5, Agence française de développement.
    6. Neil Dias Karunaratne, 2008. "The Polemics and Empirics of the Sustainability of Australia's Current Account Deficit - Revisited," Discussion Papers Series 364, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    7. Karunaratne, Neil Dias, 2010. "The sustainability of Australia's current account deficits--A reappraisal after the global financial crisis," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 81-97, January.
    8. Federico Maria Ferrara & Jörg Haas & Andrew Peterson & Thomas Sattler, 2020. "Exports vs. Investment: How Public Discourse Shapes Support for External Imbalances ," Working Papers hal-02569351, HAL.
    9. Alfredo SCHCLAREK & Jiajun XU, 2020. "Exchange rate and balance of payment risks in the global development finance architecture," Working Paper 15b03057-1f7f-44dc-93fa-5, Agence française de développement.
    10. Schclarek, Alfredo & Xu, Jiajun, 2022. "Exchange rate and balance of payment crisis risks in the global development finance architecture," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E60 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - General
    • F32 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Current Account Adjustment; Short-term Capital Movements
    • N10 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - General, International, or Comparative

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