Against this background, compensatory measures taken by euro-area countries with current account surpluses, like wage increases or a more expansionary fiscal policy stance, would be neither necessary nor helpful. Furthermore, it has to be stressed that Germany’s current account surplus, for example, is the result of decentralised market processes.
This is an important difference between EMU surplus countries and some emerging economies where a market-driven correction of imbalances is significantly hampered by policy interventions. To sum up, as the underlying causes of global imbalances are mainly still operative, imbalances are continuing to pose risks to the global economy and are incompatible with the G20’s goal of strong, balanced and sustainable growth.