Capital flows to emerging markets from Australia : facts

Over the past 3 decades equity markets over the world have experienced exceptional growth and expansion. Total market capitalisation of the world equity markets have increased from a modest US$1 trillion in 1974 to in excess of US$16 trillion by the end of 1997.1 The process of growth in the world markets could be because of improved macroeconomic and financial fundamentals or because of investors’ enthusiasm, which may have distorted the relationship between market fundamentals and equity valuations. Net private capital inflows into Asia during the mid 1990s were exceptional in terms of the total dollar amounts and also in terms of the size of these economies (Grenville, 1998). During 1998, when these countries ran into financial crisis, this inflow of US$100 billion reversed into an outflow of US$55 billion. There have been numerous studies after the crisis providing a general overview of the crisis and to identify reasons of crisis to provide possible measures to prevent future crisis.