Economists at the International Monetary Fund have called for “collective reform efforts” to tackle excessive balance of payments surpluses and deficits.

In a blogpost, published today (August 4), the economists say around 40% of current account deficits and surpluses are “excessive”.

“There are good reasons for countries to run [surpluses or deficits] at certain points in time,” Martin Kaufman and Daniel Leigh say. “But economies that borrow too much and too quickly from abroad, by running