The Nexus among External Debt and Economic Growth: Evidence from South Asia

Abstract

Over the past few years, external debt positions of South Asian economies have increased to alarming levels, indicating that those countries are more likely to be exposed to a debt crisis. Given the low domestic savings rate of these economies, they are increasingly compelled to invest significant resources in public infrastructure in order to maintain sustainable growth momentum. At the same time, those countries are invited to enrich by integrating with global synergies in the fields of maritime, trade, and financial initiatives. However, as the recent controversy over the debt-growth association is inconclusive to date; preserving the external debt exposures at an optimal level is incumbent. Consequently, this study reviews annual observations of independent cross-sections of South Asia during the period 1981-2017 in order to find the external debt-growth relationship. In addition, the quantitative research strategy used to measure the expected outcomes primarily consists of panel ARDL specifications. On aggregate levels of data, the results suggest that there is a statistically significant negative association between external debt and economic growth. Also, it has been observed that a significant nonlinear relationship exists for lower-middle-income countries.