They are all restrictive and aimed at reducing consumers' purchasing power. Short of a crisis, most governments are reluctant to adopt such policies. Thus, my judgment is that the difficulties of sustaining current account deficits have been overstated for any country whose financial markets are developed enough to be able to borrow in its own currency.
Of course, this is even more so if its own currency is a reserve currency which foreign central banks are willing to accumulate. Current account surpluses and lending I would now like to approach the subject of imbalances from the side of the surplus countries, particularly Asian countries.