Geographical Distribution and Pattern of International Capital Flows

There have been sweeping changes in the global financial relations since the International Bank Credit boom of the 1970s. The changes have been all-pervasive, influencing the inter-relations between the State, industry and finance in a large part of the global economy. A significant aspect of this includes the wave of deregulation, which has integrated the major financial markets of the World. With finance crossing the boundaries of the Nation States, the advanced nations experienced a climate of interdependence as was never witnessed before. The steady rise in the cross-border financial flows has been combined by systemic risks with boom-bust cycles in private credit, and the amplitude also widened markedly over time. Thus in the present paper an attempt has been made to trace and examine the changing geographical distribution and pattern of international capital flows with time. The whole paper has been divided into five sections and various sub-sections. Apart from the introductory section, the changing pattern of capital movements during the decade of 1970s will be examined in Section-I. In Section- II country wise capital movements will be analyzed between the periods 1980 to 1990. An attempt will be made to highlight factors leading group wise differentials in the capital movement .The era of 1990s saw significant worldwide policy changes along with specific country wise changes especially in the developing countries which aim at unhindered movement of resources across the countries. As a result an attempt has been made to assess and analyze the changing pattern of different components of capital flows between various country groups during 1990 to 2000 and 2001 to 2010 in section III and IV respectively.