The principal cause of the balance of payments deficits of the non-oil developing countries has altered since 1973: exogenous factors now play a far more important role than previously. The appropriateness of the conditions conventionally attached to IMF drawings needs to be re-examined in this...

The classical approach towards adjustment has proved to have considerable shortcomings, particularly in connection with supply response issues and the conditions for re-establishing sustainable growth. The following article concludes that sustainable stabilisation and adjustment require a...

Adjustment programmes promoted by the IMF and the World Bank have met with mixed success in recent years. What part has the interaction of interest groups in the countries concerned played in this connection? What lessons are to be learnt for future adjustment programmes?

In view of the close relationship between macro-economic performance, structural adjustment and international trade, the OECD Council established in 1979 a programme of work on Positive Adjustment Policies. Under this mandate, a Special Group of the Economic Policy Committee (under the...