The liquidity surplus in developed economies caused the persistence of low interest rates and the reduction in volatility on financial markets. Moreover, despite excess liquidity, economic growth in advanced countries slowed down in recent years, the profitability in several industries dropping to relatively low levels. In this context, investors started the search for yield and profit opportunities in emerging economies. In such cases, interest rates acted via the portfolio channel (Calvo, Leiderman  2  BIS Review 5/2010  and Reinhart, 1993). In addition, low interest rates and portfolio diversification led to the improvement in debt default probabilities in emerging countries, implying the activation of the channel suggested by Dooley et al. (1996). Gradually, investors were no longer wary of emerging economies so that large capital inflows were further recorded for several years. Reinhart and Reinhart (2008) showed that, during 1980–2008, the maximum period of massive capital inflows in 181 countries was of 3 years for more than 50 countries and 4 years for more than 30 countries. Nevertheless, in almost 20 countries that period lasted 5 years. This does not necessarily imply that large capital inflows were recorded solely by emerging economies. They were relatively large in low-income countries, as well as in middle- and high-income countries, OECD members. For instance, capital inflows were relatively high in the US (2002–2007), in the United Kingdom and France (2005–2007), in Spain (2004–2007). In Romania, large capital inflows were recorded during 2004–2008.

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