The flow of money through the global financial system is still stuck at the same level as a decade ago, raising fresh concerns about the strength of the economic recovery following six years of financial crisis.
A dramatic slowdown in cross-border capital flows – shown in an analysis for the Financial Times by the McKinsey Global Institute – highlights how the US subprime mortgage and eurozone debt crises threw into reverse the globalisation of finance, and raises doubts over whether flows will ever return to their pre-crisis peak.
The contraction could fuel worries about the pace of economic recovery in the advanced world, but also masks a shift in the economic order towards emerging market economies and away from European banks.