| libellule said: but it is an account ? if it is negative it means you are .... poor because you have money to give back to someone ??? |
That isn't what a current account it. It's a measure of everything that a country exports, subtracted by everything that the country has imported.
So, if a country exports £250m worth of goods, but imports £300m, they will have a current account deficit of ... -£50m.
The reason why China's is so high, is because they export loads, and import very little (relatively), and the USA is the reverse - it exports little, and imports lots (indeed, it's one of the largest exporters in the world... but it just imports a fuck-tonne).
But the crucial fact of the matter is that, in the long run the current account always averages £0. That means, over time, the amount of imports will always be equal to the amount of exports (I won't go into the economics of why, unless somebody asks). This means that, at some point in the future (probably between 20-30 years away), the USA will begin exporting more stuff than it imports, and China will begin importing more stuff than it exports.
Thus, both China's and USA's surplus/deficit will shrink to £0.
