In the course of the global financial crisis, countries that did not experience a sovereign debt crisis for several decades suddenly faced increasing sovereign default risk spreads as investors started to doubt the sustainability of fiscal positions. Several European countries struggled to avoid...

The debt crisis of the eighties has compelled many developing countries to catch up on a painful adjustment backlog. In addition to traditional stabilization measures sponsored by the IMF, many countries are now acquainted with the structural adjustment programmes of the World Bank. Some have...