Indeed, the largest deficit experienced over that 25 year period, relative to GDP, was in the mid-seventies, with another very large deficit in the mid-eighties. I am myself absolutely persuaded that, even if the Reserve Bank Act were amended to make the Bank responsible for reducing the balance of payments deficit, monetary policy has no ability to produce any sustainable reduction in that deficit.
Joachim Wuermeling: Brexit - implications for UK branches of German banks Speech by Prof Joachim Wuermeling, Member of the Executive Board of the Deutsche Bundesbank, at the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, London, 14 February 2019.