China Leads Fall In Foreign Lending To Emerging Markets: BIS

Fahad Shabbir (@FahadShabbir) Published July 22, 2016 | 09:52 PM

PARIS, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 22th july, 2016) - Cross-border lending, key to help fuel economic growth, fell to emerging markets at the start of the year, led by China, the Bank for International Settlements said Friday. The $76 billion decline -- a 9-percent fall at an annual rate -- in the first quarter took the outstanding drop to $3.2 trillion to emerging market countries, the BIS said. Emerging economies, such as Brazil and Russia, had until recently been responsible for most growth in the global economy. But a plunge in oil and other commodity prices that has hobbled many emerging nations, as well as fears of a hard landing in China, have led to an outflow of foreign funds.

The BIS, which is owned by and serves central banks, said the drop in foreign lending to China drove the aggregate quarterly change in lending to emerging market economies as a whole and to emerging Asia in particular. "Since hitting its all-time high at end September 2014, cross-border bank credit to China has contracted by a cumulative $367 billion," or by a third of the total, said the BIS.