The International Monetary Fund joined the U.S. Treasury Department in rebuking Germany’s trade surpluses, rebuffing the claim of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government that booming exports are a sign of economic health.
As Germany bristled over a Treasury report critical of its current-account surpluses, the fund’s First Deputy Managing Director David Lipton urged Merkel’s government to reduce its export surplus to an “appropriate rate” to help its euro-area partners cut deficits. The Treasury report berated Germany’s export focus during Europe’s debt crisis, saying its neglect of domestic demand has delayed ending the misery.
