As the world economy slowly recovers from the very deep and widespread recession of recent years, many countries confront very serious fiscal imbalances. How much time they have to deal with these imbalances is a central question, the salience of which can only have been increased by the ongoing...

This paper traces balance-of-payments developments in eastern Europe and the USSR over the last decade and examines their potential for adjustment. The growth of external debt and the balance of payments deficit, possible reasons for the area's poor trade performance and the factors which may...