“External Debt and Growth in Pacific Island Countries

Tiru Jayaraman () and Chee-Keong Choong

Economia Internazionale / International Economics, 2008, vol. 61, issue 4, 711-728

Abstract: This paper examines the relationship between external debt and economic growth in Fiji during a 30-year period (1970-2005). Applying the bound testing approach of Pesaran et al., (2001), it is found that the long-run relationship runs from external debt to economic growth. Whilst both external debt and budget deficit had a negative impact on economic growth, exports of goods and services positively influenced growth. The Granger causality test results reveal the existence in the short-run of a bi-directional linkage between external debt and growth. The study conclusion is that Fiji would benefit from channeling its future external borrowings into activities promoting exports of goods and services, in which the country has a clear comparative advantage, rather than for consumption; by so doing the likelihood of any debt overhang can be avoided.

Keywords: External Debt; Economic Growth; Exports; Bound Test; Causality; Debt Overhang (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E52 E63 H62 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.iei1946.it/RePEc/ccg/JAYARAMAN_CHOONG%20711_728.pdf Full text (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ris:ecoint:0020

Access Statistics for this article

Economia Internazionale / International Economics is currently edited by Giovanni Battista Pittaluga

More articles in Economia Internazionale / International Economics from Camera di Commercio Industria Artigianato Agricoltura di Genova Via Garibaldi 4, 16124 Genova, Italy. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Angela Procopio ().