In the Media

Prof. Xiang Fang from HKU Business School noted in an interview with the Hong Kong Economic Journal Monthly that completely free capital flows are no panacea. There is broad agreement, especially after the 2008 financial crisis, that full capital account openness is not necessarily the optimal choice.

Around 20 years ago, a prominent issue in the global economy was the imbalance of current accounts. The current account comprises the import and export of goods and services, as well as the net return on mutual foreign investments, with the former being the primary component. Current account imbalances can be viewed as trade imbalances—namely, the persistent or even growing trade surpluses or deficits of various economies as a proportion of their GDP.