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

Authors

James K. Boyce, University of Massachusetts - Amherst
Léonce Ndikumana

Working Paper Number

2000-1

Publication Date

2000

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.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.7275/1072034

Recommended Citation

Boyce, James K. and Ndikumana, Léonce, "Is Africa a Net Creditor? New Estimates of Capital Flight from Severely Indebted Sub-Saharan African Countries, 1970-1996" (2000). Economics Department Working Paper Series. 81.
https://doi.org/10.7275/1072034