Lastly, FDI patterns are uneven from one country to another, with some having very limited access to external financing or receiving quite small flows of FDI. The region's total gross external debt stood at 41% of GDP in 1990 but had fallen to 20.9% of GDP by 2012 (see figure 1.13). Meanwhile, international reserves climbed from 22.3% of total gross external debt in 2002, prior to the surge in the region's export prices, to 69.7% in 2012.