The international competitiveness of German industry, so greatly dependent on exports, is in large measure determined both by fluctuations in the rate of exchange and by the level of its labour costs in relation to those of its competitors in the world market. Recent trends in these two factors...

The Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates was abandoned by the industrialised countries in March 1973. They switched to a system of flexible exchange rates. Representatives of the developing countries were particularly critical of the industrialised countries’ exchange rate flexibility....

The following article deals with the reasons for the fierce resistance of the developing countries to the system of floating exchange rates which the industrialized countries are favouring at present. It examines the consequences of floating exchange rates for the foreign trade, indebtedness and...