Over the past decade the non-oil developing countries’ external debt has shown a more than threefold increase, a trend that may be expected to continue in the foreseeable future. In response to the recipient countries’ changing needs, private lending, their principal source of credit, will...

It is often maintained, with reference to the increasing competition from newly industrialising countries, that Western support for the development of LDCs' economies would only amount to supplying the rope with which one will later be hanged. Our author argues that, contrary to that opinion,...

When the G7 summit in Lyon discussed the reform of multilateral institutions, the spotlight fell unexpectedly on UNCTAD. The final communiqué stated that UNCTAD IX was a milestone on the road towards the renewal of the organisation. The outcome of the conference was also cited as proof of the...

Recently international organizations as e.g. the International Monetary Fund or the GATT have increasingly been criticized particularly by developing countries. Even the creation of a kind of super-UNCTAD is under discussion. Other institutions are also subjected to increasing pressure to...