The streamline of global financial inflows seems to have changed. Metaphorically speaking, the world's private capital has a new place of residence. It used to be concentrated in the developed countries, but those days are gone, and nowadays the emergent nations are perfect to move savings to. This is what the experts of the World Bank say. While the advanced nations have some 17% of FDI, the emerging economies have attracted 32% of foreign direct investment.
These shifts have been mainly caused by the ageing of population. The problem of ageing population is particularly acute in China. Consumption expenditures in this country are less than half of the personal income, namely 47%. Feeble financial markets as well as poor pension maintenance and social security systems result in the increasingly urgent need for personal savings. Residents of the developed countries see their savings shrink amid a great variety of lending facilities. It is a matter of ordinary logic – why save if you can just borrow?
The World Bank's analysts ranked Mongolia first with its total FDI being equal to 63% of GDP. In the rest of the developing countries investment makes just 25-30% of GDP, and Russia is not an exception. As to the leading economies, the largest flows of foreign investment (23% of GDP) occur in Norway and Canada.
