In 1995, the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimated that capital flight amounted to roughly half of the outstanding foreign debt of the most heavily indebted countries of the world. Capital flight was seen in some
Asian and
Latin American markets in the 1990s. Perhaps the most consequential of these was the
1997 Asian financial crisis that started in
Thailand and spread through much of East Asia beginning in July 1997, raising fears of a worldwide economic meltdown due to
financial contagion. In the last quarter of the 20th century, capital flight was observed from countries that offer low or negative
real interest rate (like
Russia and Argentina) to countries that offer higher real interest rate (like the
People's Republic of China). A 2006 article in
The Washington Post gave several examples of private capital leaving
France in response to the country's
wealth tax. The article also stated, "Eric Pinchet, author of a French tax guide, estimates the wealth tax earns the government about $2.6 billion a year but has cost the country more than $125 billion in capital flight since 1998." A 2009 article in
The Times reported that hundreds of wealthy financiers and entrepreneurs had recently fled England, Wales and Scotland in response to recent tax increases, and had relocated in low tax destinations such as
Jersey,
Guernsey, the
Isle of Man, and the
British Virgin Islands. In May 2012 the scale of
Greek capital flight in the wake of the first
"undecided" legislative election was estimated at €4 billion a week and later that month the
Spanish Central Bank revealed €97 billion in capital flight from the
Spanish economy for the first quarter of 2012. In the run up to the British referendum on leaving the EU (
Brexit) there was a net
capital outflow of £77 billion in the preceding two quarters, £65 billion in the quarter immediately before the referendum and £59 billion in March when the referendum campaign started. This corresponds to a figure of £2 billion in the equivalent six months in the preceding year. A report from the
Central Bank of Iran noted that the first quarter of 2025 saw the highest capital outflow the country had ever recorded. Despite a $6 billion trade surplus, $9 billion left Iran via capital flight. The
Turkish Statistical Institute observed that year that Iranians had become a significant demographic of purchasers of Turkish real estate, which was attributable to capital flight driven by economic and political uncertainty in Iran. One political scientist noted that the pattern of capital flight accompanied an analogous phenomenon of
brain drain. In April 2025, the United States president Donald Trump announced
wide ranging tariffs that triggered a "
Sell America" trade internationally, and was re-energized in January 2026 after Trump expressed a desire to
take over Greenland in opposition to the European Union stance. == See also ==