Underdevelopment in poor countries can also be attributed to external factors.

Brain drain. Foreign economies often attract developing countries' skilled manpower that could be needed for the development of their economies.

The IMF today, has a great influence on the development programmes of LDCs. This has led to unpredictable funding, which limits the successes of the targeted  programmes for development.

High prices for petroleum products also leads to high foreign expenditure by LDCs. This leads to limited financial resources for economic development.

Income drain. As far as poor countries encourage foreign investors, excessive capital outflow (capital flight) is definitely certain. This reduces the would be foreign capital resource base necessary for development.

Underdevelopment in the third world has also been attributed to sabotage by rich industrialized nations, against the economic development programme LDCs.

Frequent devaluation has always been undertaken, and quite often, untimely, and yet has not been successful in LDCs. This, too, limits their level of economic prosperity and development.

Slave trade. Some economists believe that slave trade robbed poor nations especially Africa of the energetic labour force, that could have contributed to economic development.