Ultimately, these are two sides of the same coin: Countries with a current account deficit absorb savings from abroad and countries with a savings surplus transfer resources abroad. The scale we are dealing with here is revealed by looking at the global current account structure.
The US current account deficit last year of $ billion – 6.4% of GDP – stood in contrast to current account surpluses of $ billion in Japan, $ billion in China and a further $ billion in some Asian emerging economies, and $ billion in the OPEC countries. The euro area was running a current account deficit equivalent to $ billion.