The global financial cycle and external debt: effects on growth and distribution in emerging and developing economies

Abstract The global financial cycle (GFCy), driven by international monetary conditions and global risk perceptions, is a major driver of capital flows to and out of emerging and developing economies (EDEs), reflected in external indebtedness. This paper analyzes the impact of the GFCy on the economic performance of EDEs borrowing in international markets. Rising external borrowing generates appreciating pressures on the exchange rate and lowers the cost of external borrowing. The overall impact of these reinforcing effects acts over investment, debt servicing and the current account balance. We conduct simulation exercises which show that rising external debt coupled with lax external financial conditions have a detrimental impact on economic activity and creates inflationary pressures through the effect of financial costs and the reaction of nominal wage demands. We show that capital control measures increase the degrees of freedom of monetary authorities.