Some Observations on the Geographical Structure of International Deficits and their Financing

I should note at the outset that many defects exist in the statistical estimates that are used in the field under discussion. The estimates most often cited come from the OECD, which purport to show, for December 1977, a discrepancy of more than $88 billion over the years 1974 -1977 ($22 billion a year) between the current account surpluses of the OPEC countries ($175 billion) and the accumulated deficits of the rest of the world ($264 billion) [4 , p. 64]. This discrepancy is almost equal to the total deficits of the OECD countries during that period ($98 billion). There appear to be discrepancies of the same order of magnitude in the estimates of the transfers of capital and monetary reserves between various countries.