The main challenges ahead  4.1  Correcting global imbalances and fostering sustainable growth  Whatever the shape of the future system, an urgent task – to be addressed as soon as the economic situation improves – is correcting existing imbalances. The fundamental macroeconomic imbalances that lay at the root of the financial crisis are not being righted by the consequent global recession.
At present, the rise in US private sector saving and the sharp fall in investment, partly offset by a larger public sector deficit, appear to have narrowed the US current account deficit from 5.3 per cent of GDP in 2007 to 2.6 per cent in 2009, as projected by the IMF.