Some acquisitions may lead to a loss of jobs, but on the whole they make companies more productive, create higher-wage jobs and help pay for the current-account deficit.
Usually, though, trade is responsible for most of the current account imbalance.
The average current account gap for the first three quarters - at 2.7% of GDP - is below the 3.1% of GDP for the same period in 2010.
For a start the current-account deficit is likely to overshoot projections of about 3% of GDP for 2011, if October's trade figures are anything to go by.
The slight differences of substance are hardly enough to account for the current bitterness.
Euro membership makes adjustment to the required current account surpluses for these countries all the harder.
The council said it had taken the expected profit from the scheme into account in the budget for the current financial year, investing it in subsidised bus routes.
In the hope of shifting the conversation away from currencies, South Korean officials have been pushing the idea that G20 leaders embrace goals for current-account surpluses and deficits at the Seoul summit.
Paul Cavey at Macquarie has pencilled in a rate of 5.8 yuan to the dollar for 2013, for example, when he expects the current-account surplus to be 3.6% of GDP.
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The primary cause for this difference in debt-holding is that the US has been running a current account deficit for years, while Japan has historically always exported more than it imports.
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The bail-out plan makes unprecedented demands for fiscal adjustment to trim both the current-account deficit and inflation.
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The reason for the action was to reduce the U.S. current account deficit, which had reached 3.5 percent of the GDP, and to help the U.S. economy to emerge from a serious recession that began in the early 1980s.
"The high current account deficit limits room for further easing, and the slowdown in growth is structural and due to supply-side issues, and should be addressed through reforms by the government, " said Leif Eskesen, chief economist for India and Asean at HSBC.
The real blame for America's current-account deficit lies with its lack of saving, not the Chinese yuan.
The country's huge demand for gold is one of the primary reasons for its large import bill, which has led to a widening of the current account deficit.
The current-account deficit, now around 5% of GDP, is a key factor: if capital flows into America slowed even more sharply, or dried up, the adjustment involved in reducing the current-account deficit could be painful both for America and the rest of the world.
There are other ways to shrink the gap between Germany's high savings rate and relatively low investment, the underlying reason for its current-account surplus.
The report does have one other piece of bad news for the UK: it thinks our current account deficit is going to get even bigger.
The Indian government is keen to discourage gold purchases as imports of the precious metal is one of the main reasons for a widening current account deficit.
Of course, the aforementioned remote should prove trickiest to find, as the current models lack that crucial external receiver to account for the built-in version found in the slim PS2 units.
Unlike the hard-money ECB, most other leading central banks are happy to see their currencies depreciate which will make it all the more difficult for the euro area to run a current account surplus.
The U.S. has had a trade and current account deficit for many years, so the matching of jobs created and lost through international trade may not have resulted in a perfect match because of export and import equality.
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As such, recent trends in trade flows and the balance of payments suggest that the current account deficit for this fiscal year will likely reach a record of about 5% of GDP before narrowing closer to 4% next year.
In 2010, the Social Security system ran its first current account deficit since 1983, and for the first time since the reforms the deficit was covered by redeeming Trust Fund bonds.
The UUP's Basil McCrea highlighted the research suggesting the educational and social benefits of pre-school education, and asked the minister to increase funding to account for 98% of potential demand instead of the current 90%.
High commodity prices have given Brazil a large current-account surplus for the past few years.
Analysts give diverse reasons for the meltdown, most pointing to the current account deficit fueled by numerous infrastructure mega-projects that rely on external financing in U.S. dollars.
This will move the region from a current-account deficit to a surplus, causing the demand for dollars to subside.
The Americans say North Korea must account for the alleged uranium-enrichment programme that led to the current crisis.
However, it lowered its growth outlook for this year and next and said the current-account deficit will continue.
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