To finance this external deficit, the United States has to attract large capital inflows, which in recent years have come mainly from Asia and oilexporting countries. Taken together, Japan, China, other Asian economies and the oil-producing nations are estimated to have recorded current account surpluses of around 750 billion US dollars in 2005.
In the euro area, the current account has recorded small surpluses in most recent years. In the period 2002-04, the current account had a surplus that did not exceed 0.5% of GDP and it is estimated that it was in balance (or had a small deficit) in 2005.