Give us some context.

 Are you bilingual? I mean you have a second language something other than English?

This is a new stat to me... what does it mean and should i be scared that ours is a negative nearly 700 times higher then the next country?

It's like trade deficit right?

Must be. idk :/

I'm still reading it

Edit:

Nothing new.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Current_account

I found hit from here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_United_Kingdom

The UK has the world's third largest current account deficit, despite significant oil revenues. This is mainly the result of a large deficit in the trade in manufacture goods. During May 2008, the IMF advised the UK government to broaden the scope of fiscal policy to promote external balance.^[7] Although the UK's "labour productivity per person employed" has been progressing well over the last two decades and has overtaken productivity in the united Germany, it lags around 20% behind France's level, where workers have a 35-hour working week.^[8] The UK's "labour productivity per hour worked" is currently on a par with the average for the "old" EU (15 countries).^[9] The United Kingdom currently ranks 16th on the Human Development Index.

Interesting that when you follow the link to the International Monetary Fund, take at look at who the is on the board for the US.

The current account deficit is essentially imports minus exports of an economy.

This is because, in theory, the imports are paid off by the money made from the exports. If the number of imports is greater than the number of exports, then money must be borrowed from other countries to pay for it.*

This money we borrow from other countries has to be paid back with an interest, meaning that, as time goes on, the country will become relatively poorer. It's basically a trade-off of having a really good, unsustainable standard of living now, versus having a lower standard of living but that grows at a sustainable level.

It's basically deciding whether you want good times now, or later. Unfortunately, politicians can't see ahead of the next election, so they only are for the short term, which means that they don't do much to solve the situation.

But, don't worry, the economy won't come crashing down - you're just going to experience slow growth for a very long time whilst other nations, with a positive current account balance whizzes past - they then start importing more than they export from us countries, and it all turns around.

*Borrowing money from other countries leads to a greater demand of your currency. If the supply of money stays the same (so the amount of notes, coins, etc), then cost of the currency will go up - this is one of the causes of currency fluctuation. Obviously, a higher pound will lead to more imports, making it a spiralling problem.

 No. U can pay for the goods u import with money from within your own country. Else u would be presenting a mathematical impossibility, because some countries simply are destined to always import more than they export (and vice versa, countries like Korea, Japan and Chine will always be net exporters, at least during our lifetime) - cause u dont mean they will be forever in debt, do u?

Slimebeast, not true.

When you import a good, the money is coming out of your country, and into another, when you export a good money leaves another country and goes into yours. If you import more than you export, then more money is leaving your country than going in - you need to get that money to pay back the goods from somewhere, and that somewhere if from net exporters.

Trust me, I know what I'm talking about, I've spent the last six months studying macroeconomics - I know what the Balance of Payments is.

I assume you're referring to me... and you're right, I do agree with what your saying. I also think the EU will become "one voice" before any other body comes close to challenging the US economic super-power status. So, yeah, the EU will be the next superpower, it'll take a long time for the transition to happen, first.

But you're assuming that the country starts off with nothing, otherwise the country can use some if it's money