The art of the surplus

Berlin

GERMANY'S persistently high current-account surplus may not have been on the official agenda of last week's G-20 summit at Hamburg, but it was bound to have provoked tensions among the assembled leaders. After all, that surplus, which has long been a bone of contention for many of Germany's trade partners, hit a new high of 8.3 per cent of nominal GDP last year, with the surplus vis-à-vis the United States accounting for the largest share.

To be sure, Germany's economy could benefit from policy changes that would also reduce the current-account surplus. But such adjustments make sense only if guided by sober reasoning - and by leaders who accept the mutually beneficial nature of international trade, allow economic adjustment to occur over time, and reject the illusion that an economy is akin to a large company.