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Is Africa a Net Creditor? New Estimates of Capital Flight from Severely Indebted Sub-Saharan African Countries, 1970-1996

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  • Léonce Ndikumana
  • James Boyce

Abstract

This paper presents estimates of capital flight from 25 low-income sub-Saharan African countries in the period 1970 to 1996. Capital flight totaled more than $193 billion (in 1996 dollars); with imputed interest earnings, the accumulated stock of flight capital amounts to $285 billion. The combined external debt of these countries stood at $178 billion in 1996. Taking capital flight as a measure of private external assets, and calculating net external assets as private external assets minus public external debts, sub-Saharan Africa thus appears to be a net creditor vis-à-vis the rest of the world.

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  • Léonce Ndikumana & James Boyce, 2000. "Is Africa a Net Creditor? New Estimates of Capital Flight from Severely Indebted Sub-Saharan African Countries, 1970-1996," Working Papers wp5, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
    • Handle: RePEc:uma:periwp:wp5
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    1. Ndikumana, Leonce, 2000. "Financial Determinants of Domestic Investment in Sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from Panel Data," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 381-400, February.
    2. Boyce, James K., 1992. "The revolving door? External debt and capital flight: A Philippine case study," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 335-349, March.
    3. Simeon Inidayo Ajayi, 1997. "An Analysis of External Debt and Capital Flight in the Severely Indebted Low Income Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa," IMF Working Papers 97/68, International Monetary Fund.
    4. Leonce Ndikumana & James Boyce, 1998. "Congo's Odious Debt: External Borrowing and Capital Flight in Zaire," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 29(2), pages 195-217, April.
    5. Ajayi, S.I., 1995. "Capital Flight and External Debt in Nigeria," Papers 35, African Economic Research Consortium.
    6. B.W. Smit & B.A. Mocke, 1991. "Capital Flight from South Africa: Magnitude and Causes," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 59(2), pages 60-77, June.
    7. Pastor, Manuel Jr., 1990. "Capital flight from Latin America," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 1-18, January.
    8. Ajayi, S. Ibi, 1992. "An economic analysis of capital flight from Nigeria," Policy Research Working Paper Series 993, The World Bank.
    9. Claessens, Stijn & Naude, David, 1993. "Recent estimates of capital flight," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1186, The World Bank.
    10. Lensink, Robert & Hermes, Niels & Murinde, Victor, 1998. "The Effect of Financial Liberalization on Capital Flight in African Economies," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 26(7), pages 1349-1368, July.
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    Cited by:

    1. Majumder, Monoj Kumar & Raghavan, Mala & Vespignani, Joaquin, 2020. "Commodity price volatility, external debt and exchange rate regimes," Working Papers 2020-13, University of Tasmania, Tasmanian School of Business and Economics.
    2. Beja, Edsel, 2009. "Things are different when you open up: Economic openness, domestic economy, and income," MPRA Paper 12802, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Jomo Kwame Sundaram & Rudiger von Arnim, 2008. "Economic liberalization and constraints to development in sub-Saharan africa," Working Papers 67, United Nations, Department of Economics and Social Affairs.
    4. Niels Hermes & Robert Lensink & Victor Murinde, 2002. "Flight Capital and its Reversal for Development Financing," WIDER Working Paper Series DP2002-99, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    5. Almounsor Abdullah, 2008. "Capital Flight Accounting and Welfare Implications in the MENA Region," Review of Middle East Economics and Finance, De Gruyter, vol. 4(2), pages 1-67, April.
    6. Monoj Kumar Majumder & Mala Raghavan & Joaquin Vespignani, 2020. "Commodity price volatility, external debt and exchange rate regimes," CAMA Working Papers 2020-110, Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    7. Ila Patnaik & Abhijit Sen Gupta & Ajay Shah, 2012. "Determinants of Trade Misinvoicing," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 23(5), pages 891-910, November.
    8. Léonce Ndikumana, 2001. "Financial Markets and Economic Development in Africa," Working Papers wp17, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
    9. Jarita DUASA, 2010. "The Effectiveness of Malaysian Capital Outflow Controls of 1998," EcoMod2004 330600044, EcoMod.

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