Sustainability of current account deficits in small states

Abstract

This article applies the inter-temporal budget constraint framework and panel cointegration tests to examine the sustainability of current account deficits in 17 small states over the period 1980-2017. The findings show the existence of cointegration between real exports and real imports, but with the magnitude of the long-run coefficient being less than one, which support a “weak” form of current account sustainability in small states.