This is not the first time that a current account has been available at post offices.
However, despite government backing, one in 12 UK households still do not have a current account.
According to the BCSB, 13 million people in the UK do not have a current account.
The convenience of online banking is greatly diminished if a customer has to maintain a current account, for example, offline.
When the Bretton Woods system ended in 1971, the United States had run a current account surplus every year since 1960.
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The UK ran a current account surplus of 0.6 percent of GDP in 1978, the last full year before Thatcher came to office.
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And, unlike America, they are not running a current account deficit with the rest of the world: they are paying their way in the global economy.
This happens when an economy runs a current account surplus.
Wage competitiveness was returning, as was a current account surplus.
Third, the lower the interest rate the lower US net income payments to foreigners and hence the more likely the US is to move to a current account surplus.
Congress spent these surpluses, and the U.S. Treasury issued the Social Security Trust Fund special bonds, which can be redeemed whenever the Social Security system has a current account deficit.
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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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.
"You have a budget deficit that is ballooning, a current account deficit deteriorating and you have investments both local and international at a standstill, you know taking a wait and see approach, " says El-Khazindar.
See which government bonds have low debt-to-GDP, preferably under 30%, with low budget deficits and a current account surplus or strong current account balance in a country that is growing at least 3% GDP annually.
Even more worrying, in the short term, is that alarming statistic I flagged up last week: the Office for Budget Responsibility expects us to run a current account deficit of 4% of GDP in 2012.
You might be shocked to hear that the OBR expects Britain to run a current account deficit of 4% of GDP in 2012 - that's the worst figure this century and 60% higher than in 2010.
"The payments would not be so recognised by the typical customer when he opens a current account with a bank, and they are not generally so presented by the banks in their terms or other documentation, " he added.
When the United States does run a current account deficit and hence (on net) borrows from abroad, it must expect to have to service that debt and it cannot meet those payments by generating outsized returns on its foreign portfolio.
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Interest foregone is calculated by subtracting the amount of interest earned from a current account from the amount of interest that could be earned had the consumer put his or her money in an account which earns higher interest, or put some of that money in savings.
Portugal has a gaping current account deficit, a shrinking economy and 7.5% of GDP's worth of austerity in train, for 2011-12 alone.
Much the same thing was happening in the U.S. While Robert Triffin was wailing about the supposedly inevitable and horribly destructive U.S. current account deficit, the U.S. was actually running a persistent current account surplus.
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In contrast, the U.S. is a chronic importer with a chronic current account deficit.
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Eventually all 400 credit unions could provide a full current account service to 400, 000 members.
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As a result, exports are already growing and Ireland has moved into a current-account surplus.
Public finances were mostly in balance, public debt fell and the region ran a current-account surplus.
Under the banking code, UK banks are supposed to allow all consumers to open a basic current account.
This matters, because a country that continually runs a current-account deficit will become ever more indebted to foreigners.
It has an inflation rate of less than 1% and a current-account surplus that has reached 15% of GDP.
However, high inflation and a wide current account deficit have constrained the central bank from lowering interest rates aggressively.
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