Does external debt lead to economic growth in Pacific island countries

With the change in donors’ priorities since the end of the Cold War in the late 1980s, there has been a decline in annual aid inflows to Pacific island countries (PICs), which have been among the world's top recipients of aid per capita in the past. Along with fall in aid inflows, growing annual domestic budgetary deficits in recent years have forced some PICs to finance them through borrowing. This paper seeks to examine whether external debt contributed to economic growth in PICs by undertaking a study of six major PICs.