Owing to changes in the magnitude and composition of capital flows, the private sector is playing an increasingly important role in the financing of emerging market economies. According to recent IIF estimates, in the 1990s 85% of total net inflows of capital to the major borrowing countries came from the private sector.
Such inflows averaged USD 170 billion per annum, compared with USD 35 billion per annum in the 1980s. By contrast, net official flows averaged USD 30 billion per annum throughout the 1990s and reached only USD 5 billion in 1999, their lowest level for over 20 years.