Some $30 billion of private equity, private infrastructure and private credit capital was raised in the first three quarters of this year for developing economies, compared to $51 billion of private capital raised for emerging markets in all of last year, said data released Wednesday by the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association, an industry trade group.
In all, more than $432 billion has been raised for private equity, private infrastructure and real assets, and private credit investments in developing economies from 2006 through Sept. 30. More capital had been raised in 2014 than in any individual year since 2008 when $65 billion of private capital was raised for the emerging markets.
However, private capital invested in emerging countries represents a small fraction of those countries’ gross domestic products, the study showed. For example, private equity, private infrastructure and private credit investment in China represented 0.15% of the nation’s GDP, in Brazil was 0.13% and in South Africa's was 0.12% in 2014.
By comparison, private capital accounted for 1.44% of GDP in the U.S. and 1.58% of GDP in the U.K. in 2014.