Although the main responsibility for carrying out economic reforms in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe lies with these countries themselves, the transformation of the Soviet-style economic system into a market economy must be made easier by support from abroad. In this the...

The countries of Eastern Europe need to raise considerable finance not only in order to improve their balances of payments but also to adjust the structure of their economies over the long term to changed internal and external conditions. The adjustment measures require capital, but the Eastern...

The International Monetary Fund is at present examining the possibility of borrowing on private capital markets in order to meet its growing refinancing needs. Reservations concerning such a step have been voiced in particular by the oil-importing developing countries. Professor Konrad analyses...

The IMF's Interim Committee recently for the first time discussed the creation of a “Substitution Account” to convert certain amounts of excess reserve currencies into SDRs. This issue is likely to be on the agenda of the next annual meeting of the IMF in the fall of this year. Prof....