Global Financial Crisis and its Impact on the Least Developed Countries

When in September 2008 the investment bank Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy, it did not only mean the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history but it led to the financial crisis which very soon grew into the global crisis. Both developed and developing countries, with the exception of a few economies were affected, including the Least Developed Countries (LDCs). The aim of the article is to show the impact of the financial and global crisis on the LDCs with the relevant characteristics of these countries and their development outline since the beginning of the new millennium. The impacts of the crisis are analyzed in terms of financial effects - through the development of foreign direct investment and international aid and from the perspective of the real sector effects, i.e. the development of gross domestic product, exports and emigrants remittances. Emphasis will be placed mainly on the analysis of export problems. In addition to analysis methods, the method of description and comparison will also be used in the paper.