After recurrent crises with severe consequences in the 1990s and early 2000s EDEs have become even more closely integrated into what is now widely recognized as an inherently unstable international financial system. This chapter discusses the factors accelerating global financial integration of EDEs, including monetary policies in major advanced economies, notably the United States. It examines capital inflows and outflows, external balance sheets, the size and composition of gross external assets and liabilities, distinguishing between equity and debt, private and public sectors, local currency and foreign currency debt, bond issues and bank loans, and cross-border and local lending by international banks. It provides data and information on the currency composition of external debt, and non-resident participation in domestic financial markets of emerging economies. These are used to identify the changes in the depth and pattern of integration of emerging economies into the international financial system since the early 1990s.
