In Japan’s case, as mentioned above, the large income account surplus has driven the current account surplus in recent years. When we look across the G20 countries, this is not an isolated case. Australia’s current account deficit can to a large extent be explained by its income account deficit.
The trade balance does have a large share of the current account in many countries, but other components such as the income account often have non-negligible and sometimes significant impact on the overall picture of the current account balance (Chart 3).