Capital Flows, Natural Resources and the Dutch Disease: The Colombian Case [Flujos de capital, recursos naturales y enfermedad holandesa: El caso colombiano]

This article provides empirical evidence about the relationship between capital flows, natural resource exploitation, and de-industrialisation in the case of Colombia. To this end, we analyze if the massive increase in capital inflows during the latest commodity boom led to an additional appreciation of Colombia's real effective exchange rate, thereby aggravating Dutch disease symptoms. Our results show that capital inflows, above all flows of foreign direct investment into the mining and energy sector, indeed contributed to the appreciation of Colombia's real effective exchange rate, which, in turn, negatively affected the trading sector in general, and the manufacturing sector in particular. This finding demonstrates that not only the exploitation of natural resources as such, but also the way in which this exploitation is financed influences the economies of developing countries. © 2015 Banco de la República de Colombia.

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