If a nation has a trade deficit does its current account balance have a deficit?

and what about when the nation has a trade surplus?|||Not necessarily. The "trade deficit" is a subset of the current account. The current account balance counts basically all commerce in international trade, including intangible things like royalties. The "trade balance" covers only a more limited set of traded goods, namely tangible products you could touch and feel and count at a port of entry (ie, cars, TVs, coffee beans, oil). The current account includes that, plus services and royalties (e.g. financial services, royalties on movies or books sold overseas.)



So a country could have a deficit of tangible products, but a bigger surplus of services and royalties, with the result of running a trade deficit but, overall, a current account surplus.