BruceMcF:

The most relevant balance of payments for the Euro-zone is, of course, the aggregated Euro-zone balance of payments. However, that is impolitic to make a big deal about, because it would be one more road-block to expanding the Euro-zone to include more of the EU membership, so I guess everybody just continues to publicly pretend that it is the national balance of payments that matter, while in private running up spreadsheets to aggregate the Eurozone nation accounts when they want to look at what is really going on.

When looking at those spreadsheets, how easy is it to distinguish external flows to/from other Eurozone states from external flows to/from third party states?

When the capital development of a country becomes a by-product of the activities of a casino, the job is likely to be ill-done. — John M. Keynes