The weakness of credit growth in the United States and Europe has given rise to concerns that the financial crisis has led to a credit crunch which has deepened the recession in the real economy and poses a serious threat to the recovery that seems to have started in the most recent months. In...

The rise in foreign direct investment flowing to developing countries has created high expectations that, by drawing on this source of external financing, developing countries could initiate or accelerate processes of economic catching-up to advanced industrialized countries. By contrast, the...