Publication date:
Nov 26, 2025
IMF Data Brief: Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Statistics (BOP/IIP)
Large Current Account Discrepancies are Persistent at the Global Level
Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Statistics (BOP/IIP), World and Country Group Aggregates, December 2024
Contributors: Maja Gavrilovic, Abdulrahman Gweder, Arushi Kapoor, Patrick Quill, Haruko Sakai
The global current account balance reached almost USD500 billion in 2024, according to the latest BOPSY data. The large positive discrepancy is mainly driven by the services account and, to a lesser extent, the goods account, partly offset by discrepancies of the opposite sign in the primary income account. The global current account should sum to zero, so when it does not, it signals inconsistencies or gaps in underlying data—such as misclassification, missing flows, or asymmetric recording across countries. This impedes economists’ ability to reliably assess global imbalances, external vulnerabilities, and the true nature of cross-border financial and trade relationships. The IMF monitors these discrepancies on an annual basis and works with countries to determine the cause and works to develop solutions that address these discrepancies.
Over the past 20 years, discrepancies in the components of current account have shifted substantially. Discrepancies in the goods account have been relatively stable. While secondary income account discrepancies have been large, reaching 6.8 percent of total transactions in 2013, they have declined markedly since 2016. During the same time, discrepancies in primary income and services accounts have increased substantially.
Global discrepancies in the International Investment Position have widened considerably in the last two decades.
Discrepancies in the global international investment position (IIP) reached an estimated USD -7.5 trillion in 2024. Advanced economies account for USD -10.2 trillion of this gap, partly offset by USD +2.7 trillion in emerging and developing economies. By definition, the global net IIP should be positive reflecting the global stock of monetary gold (which does not have an offsetting liability).
Deviations have grown larger in recent years. Both global assets and liabilities in the IIP increased, driven primarily by revaluations (exchange rate and other price changes), and to a smaller degree, by transactions. However, the rise in liabilities in advanced economies has not been matched by an increase in assets, either within advanced or emerging and developing economies.
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