At the same time, financial flows were gradually liberalised and a global financial system emerged, with the active participation of global banks and investment firms. In addition, foreign direct investment inflows have increased tenfold since 1993. The opening up of the current account and the subsequent expansion of trade and financial flows enabled many countries to raise their development status. In this vein, GDP per capita in low and middle income countries doubled in constant terms from 1995 to 2016, while extreme poverty was notably reduced. The Spanish experience since the mid-1980s, when we joined the European Union, constitutes a canonical example of the benefits that the opening up and liberalisation of an economy can bring about in terms of growth and economic modernisation. The need to reform the global governance model However, we should admit that the multilateral system that emerged from Bretton Woods has been sluggish in adapting to a changing world. A world in which emerging economies play a greater role in the global economy than they did in the past. This has undermined some of its legitimacy, causing disaffection among some of its members and impairing the consensus needed for agreements to be reached at international level. The emergence of the global financial crisis in 2008 highlighted the need to rebalance representation on global fora in order for effective concerted action to be achieved.
In this case, flexibility means the possibility of third parties voluntarily 5  Garrido, I., P. Moreno and X. Serra (2012), “El FMI y los acuerdos regionales de financiación”, Boletín Económico, March, Banco de España, and (2016), “The new map of international financial institutions”, Economic Bulletin, January, Banco de España. 6 Johannes Linn (2018): “Recent threats to multilateralism”, Global Journal of Emerging Market Economies 9, 86–113. 7 https://www.bundesbank.de/en/press/speeches/policy-evaluation-assessing-the-effects-of-post-crisis-financialsector-reforms-799146 8 https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/Policy-Papers/Issues/2017/07/31/pp073117-collaboration-between-regionalfinancing-arrangements-and-the-imf  6/8  adhering to a plurilateral agreement in due course (making the agreement multilateral in essence), while maintaining peer pressure to avoid free riding.9 Furthermore, the new global governance system should recognise that both regionalism and multilateralism are compatible, as some problems are of a local nature and are better tackled locally. Regionalism and multilateralism are not mutually exclusive. On the contrary, both approaches can support and complement each other, generating synergies that strengthen the global financial safety net. Indeed, bilateral and regional agreements have in many cases brought about improvements in the multilateral trading system. E-commerce is a good example of this.10 In this regard, the European Union, for example, should maintain its proactive approach to preserve the rules-based global trade system.