Australia · Current Account · % GDP

## What this measures

What Australia earns from the rest of the world — exports, income, transfers — minus what it pays out. Negative means the country borrows from abroad to cover the gap.

## Why it matters

Deficits have to be financed by foreign capital, which can leave faster than it came. It is the single best early warning of a currency crisis in an emerging economy.

## How to read it

A deficit is sustainable while it funds investment and the capital keeps coming; watch it together with the currency.

## What it does not say

Reserve-currency issuers (the United States) can run persistent deficits that would break other countries.

## Source

Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators (CC BY 4.0), indicator `BN.CAB.XOKA.GD.ZS`, annual.