Sustainability of external debt: BRICST countries

The issue of sustainability of external debt concerns both debtor countries and creditor countries. In case of a problem at the repayment of the debt, not only the debtor country but also the creditor country will be put in trouble. Therefore, topics such as the way in which external borrowing will be made, which need it will be used to meet, and how the external debt will be repaid should be clarified in advance and the process should be followed meticulously. Especially in the current global system, which has become economically and financially integrated, it is inevitable that an external debt crisis that may occur in one country will affect many other countries. For this reason, the sustainability of external debt in the BRICST (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa and Turkey) countries, whose importance has increased in recent years and is expected to dominate the global economy in the future, is an issue that concerns not only these countries, but the whole world. The main purpose of this thesis is to analyze the sustainability of external debt in the BRICST countries, which are in an important position in terms of the global economy. In this context, seven different indicators related to the sustainability of external debts were discussed and each of these indicators was examined using the data of the BRICST countries for the period of 1994-2020. Six different unit root tests were used in the analysis process. According to the findings obtained in the study, it was seen that external debt is unsustainable in Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, while it is sustainable in Turkey. This study makes significant contributions to the economics literature considering the diversity of the indicators and tests applied, the up-to-dateness of the data used and the position of the examined countries in the global economy.