Global
Development Finance 2003
Foreign Investment, Remittances
Outpace Debt As Sources of Finance For Developing Countries: World Bank
Washington, April 2, 2003—
Foreign direct investment and migrant workers sending part of their paycheck back home
have become more important sources of finance for developing countries than private
lending. In 2002 payments on private debt were again larger than new loans, so private
debt flows were a net negative for developing countries, according to a new World Bank
report, Global Development Finance 2003.
These changes are having profound consequences for developing countries. The boom and
bust in private lending was a crucial element in a series of financial crises that started
with the 1997-98 East Asia crisis and continued in a new round of Latin American debt
problems in 2002. More positively, however, the lower volatility of foreign direct
investment (FDI) and remittances is fostering a more stable environment for those
developing countries that have learned to live with less external debt. |
| Press
Materials |
| Press Release in English, Arabic (135K
PDF), Chinese
(160K PDF), French, Hindi (95K
Word), Japanese
(75K Word), Portuguese, and Spanish. Coming
soon in Italian, German, and Polish. |
| Regional Press Releases: Africa,
East Asia &
Pacific (30K PDF), Europe & Central
Asia (22K PDF), Latin America & Caribbean in English (125K
PDF) & Spanish
(25K PDF), Middle East & North Africa in English
and Arabic,
and South Asia
(30K PDF). |
| Press
Conference Transcript |
|
Global Development Finance 2003