Bruegel Event Recordings

In the aftermath of the global financial crisis, external imbalances were narrowing and remained fairly stable in recent years. Now, these imbalances are widening again, according to a multilaterally consistent IMF assessment of countries’ external positions, which includes current account balances, real exchange rates, external balance sheets, capital flows and international reserves. What are the drivers of these widening imbalances? How have individual countries contributed to the imbalances? What lessons can policy makers draw? These and other related questions were addressed in a presentation of a recent IMF report by Luis Cubeddu. The presentation was followed by comments from Bruegel Senior Fellow Zsolt Darvas and an open discussion chaired by Bruegel Research Fellow Maria Demertzis.