A coming crisis

The OECD is forecasting a current account balance of payments deficit for the US of 5% of gross domestic product (GDP) this year, 5% next year and 5.1% in 2005.

Despite the decline in the dollar during the past year, which has been mainly against the euro - the payments deficit prospect remains frightening, as the above OECD estimates indicate. The obvious conclusion is that the devaluation of the dollar has a long way to go.