This paper discusses the launch of the Brandt Commission. The paper highlights that during the week of the Annual Meetings of the Board of Governors of the World Bank and the IMF in Washington, D.C. (September 26–30, 1977), Willy Brandt, former Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany,...

This paper highlights that 1977 was an eventful year for the IMF. Drawing on the IMF’s resources during 1977 totaled more than SDR 3.4 billion. These were accompanied by a record volume of repurchases, which reduced the total net drawings for the year to SDR 427 million. At the end of 1977,...

This paper highlights that the 1978 World Bank Annual Meeting, held in Washington, D.C. during September 25–28, 1978, emphasized that greater efforts need to be made by both developed and developing countries, on domestic as well as international fronts, to stimulate lagging growth and to...

This paper highlights that the flow of IMF-related resources to member countries was maintained at a high level during 1979, amounting to the equivalent of SDR 6,917 million, compared with SDR 4,955 million in 1978. Some SDR 3.77 billion became available to non-oil developing countries in 1979....

This paper highlights that in a shift of policy, the World Bank decided to finance directly health projects in developing countries. Under its old policy, formulated in 1974, health components providing basic health care for low-income individuals were incorporated into projects in other...

This paper highlights that despite severe limitations of resources, developing countries have made substantial progress during the past three decades in sending more children to school and in generally improving their education systems. Enrollment of children in schools at all levels has...

This paper highlights that the 1980 Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the IMF affirmed the willingness of the IMF to evolve, under its charter, to meet new circumstances; but in some ways there was a departure from the past. Two substantive problems dominated the Meeting: the...

This paper discusses quantitative indicators that measure such macroeconomic variables as the growth of national product, inflation. The importance of considering several indicators in a dynamic context becomes particularly relevant during periods when needed economic and financial adjustment...

This paper presents a review of the principal issues emerging from an IMF Conference held in March 1983. The special drawing right has been conceived in the 1960s and has been formally provided in the first amendment to the Articles of Agreement of the IMF, which took effect in 1969. Upon the...

This paper highlights the sources of payments problems in less developed countries. Growth in the industrial countries has a direct impact on the current account of the developing countries through its influence on both the prices and volumes of their exports. An increase in the real effective...