1979 saw a pronounced cyclical downturn with mounting, inflation and balance of payments problems bear upon the western industrialized countries with the long-expected recession materializing in the USA early in 1980. In Western Europe demand and production began to slide a little later....

The world-wide economic recession, which began as a result of the second explosive rise in oil prices in the spring of 1980, lasted throughout the whole of last year. Unemployment in industrialised countries has shot up at an alarming pace, whereas only limited progress was registered in the...