IB Economics HL 4.6.6 Persistent current account deficit Question Bank
Practise IB Economics HL 4.6.6 by applying persistent current account deficit concepts to exam-style questions.
- Syllabus
- First assessment 2022
- Course
- Economics HL
- Level
- HL
Practise IB Economics HL 4.6.6 by applying persistent current account deficit concepts to exam-style questions.
Table 1 shows the gross domestic product (GDP) of the United States of America (USA) economy from 2020 to 2023. The USA is not the fastest growing economy in the world, but it is the largest. It also has the largest budget deficit and the largest current account deficit in the world. As a result, the actions of its central bank, the Federal Reserve, always make news.

Table 1
Using the text/data provided and your knowledge of economics, recommend a policy that the government of the USA could introduce to correct its persistent current account deficit, without intervention in foreign exchange markets.
Possible policies may include (but are not restricted to):
- Expenditure switching policies (such as tariffs/quotas/subsidies for exporters)
- Expenditure reducing policies (such as contractionary fiscal policy/contractionary monetary policy)
- Supply-side policies (such as education and training programs/tax incentives) Any other valid policy
Note: If more than one policy is recommended, only the best policy should be rewarded, unless the policies are shown to be complementary or if they are compared/contrasted with the student's one chosen policy.
Assessment Criteria
Recommend-present an advisable course of action with appropriate supporting evidence/reason in relation to a given situation, problem, or issue.
Marks
Level descriptor
0
- The work does not reach a standard described by the descriptors below.
1-2
- The response identifies a policy.
- The response uses no economic theory to support the recommendation.
- Economic terms are stated but are not relevant.
- The response contains no use of text/data to support the recommendation.
- The response contains no evidence of synthesis or evaluation.
3-4
- The response identifies an appropriate policy.
- The response uses limited economic theory to support the recommendation in a superficial manner.
- Some relevant economic terms are included.
- The response contains no use of relevant text/data to support the recommendation.
- The response contains superficial evidence of synthesis or evaluation.
5-6
- The response identifies and explains an appropriate policy.
- The response uses relevant economic theory to partially support the recommendation.
- Some relevant economic terms are used appropriately.
- The response includes limited relevant information from the text/data which does not adequately support the recommendation.
- The response contains limited evidence of appropriate synthesis or evaluation but lacks balance.
7-8
- The response identifies and fully explains an appropriate policy.
- The response uses relevant economic theory to support the recommendation.
- Relevant economic terms are used mostly appropriately.
- The use of information from the text/data is generally appropriate, relevant and applied correctly to support the recommendation.
- The response contains evidence of appropriate synthesis or evaluation that is mostly balanced.
9-10
- The response identifies and fully explains an appropriate policy.
- The response uses relevant economic theory effectively to support the recommendation.
- Relevant economic terms are used appropriately throughout the response.
- The use of information from the text/data is appropriate, relevant and supports the analysis/evaluation effectively.
- The response contains evidence of effective and balanced synthesis or evaluation.