Q. What are the reasons for the world as a whole running a substantial current account deficit?

Answer: This deficit improved sharply in the early 1980s and has remained high. The major reasons are statistical discrepancies of timing factors, national accounts while the major factor is the systematic misreporting of international interest income flows. Ever since the world interest rates raised sharply after 1980 the size of the world interest payment discrepancy increased with them. Additionally much of the world's merchant shipping fleet is registered in countries that don't report maritime freight earnings to the IMF which collects these data.