infonet-economy

The 1990s saw a huge upsurge in flows of private capital from industrial to developing countries. At the beginning of the decade, private and official flows were about the same, but only five years later private flows dwarfed official flows. Not since the late 19th century have international capital flows assumed such prominence. But there are marked differences between the movement of capital at the end of the 20th century and the movement of capital a century earlier. These differences have important policy implications for developing countries as they integrate into the global financial system.