What are you talking about? Countries create and change the amount in circulation all the time.

No country accumulates external money. The Eurozone ones surely don't, because people mostly don't accumulate money (your bank doesn't hold a lot of it), and the ones that have their own money don't accumulate any impactful amount of reserves because those are expensive.

Im not sure how this relates to my point.

Im talking about wealth, GDP, capital, and trade. These things are measured in currency, but saying a country is hording a currency.

If country A uses all of its surplus production beyond subsistence to import alcohol from country B, and country B invests all that money on education, infrastructure, and productive capital, you would expect different outcomes.

Country A can humm along with a perpetual trade deficit forever, but there is an opportunity cost.

The entire thread is about currency. From the first post.

If you meant to talk about wealth, real GDP, and real capital, you can... you know... reference those things on your text. Because every single thing upthread is nominal and about money changing hands.

Do you want to know how Portugal can get a positive trade balance (a nominal concept)? They just need to kill tourism and the unbalanced inflow of salary and pensions. Just destroy their natural and cultural attractions and make the place so bad to live that no foreigners will want to go there. Easy.

Now, we can talk about opportunity costs...

I think you are confused by what a trade balance is. Someone coming to your country and spending money is not a trade deficit.

A trade deficit is buying more goods and services from outside than are sold outside.

I was trying to explain to you how a negative trade balance can be sustained, but it seems like you dont want to hear it.

Take care.