The Impact of International Capital Flows on Central and Eastern European Countries’ Investments, Savings, Consumption, and Current Accounts

Abstract

Capital flows have been analysed from various perspectives and yet no consensus has been reached about the impact of international capital flows on national economies. The main aim of this paper is to present the theoretical aspects of the effect of international capital flows on national economies, and to analyse the impact of international capital flows on Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries’ domestic savings, investments, consumption, and current accounts. During the investigation, the latest studies on international capital flows were reviewed and systemised, 11 CEE countries’ main indicators from across a 10-years period were collected, and computed coefficients, which represent the change associated with a variation in clusters’ capital inflows, equal to 1 percent change of GDP, were analysed. The analyses conducted show that capital flows have an impact on countries’ economies. The main findings are:  first, domestic savings and consumption are seen to have been more strongly associated with capital inflows than investments in developed countries. Second, the relationship between investments, domestic savings, consumption and one inflow in portfolio flows would be negative, in both highly developed countries and emerging market countries. Third, where positive inflows in net and gross capital are concerned, foreign direct investments would have an insignificant positive impact on current accounts in highly developed countries and developed countries but a negative impact in emerging market countries. By achieving economic growth dynamics within a specific country, a wide evaluation of a country’s capital flows can be performed, and control of capital flows gained, by applying different assessment models.