How the world sees the 1980s.

PositionExcerpts from General Assembly Declaration - Special Section - Future of the Global Economy: Challenges of the 90s

How the world sees the 1980s

Reaching a common view of the 1980s that all countries could live with was as crucial as the formulation of possible remedial action in the 1990s, it was generally felt. The following are excerpts from the Declaration which resulted from this process:

In the 1980s, progress in developed and developing countries has been uneven. The decade was marked by an increasing gap between those groups of countries, as well as by relatively slow growth and large global financial and trade imbalances.

Developed market-oriented countries have succeeded to a large extent in controlling inflation and in maintaining sustained, though modest, growth.

For many developing countries, the 1980s have been viewed as a decade lost for development.

Living conditions in Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean, and in parts of Asia, deteriorated, and aconomic and social infrastructures eroded, impairing stability and prospects for growth and development. Other developing countries were able to achieve economic and social progress.

The position of developing countries in international trade and finance weakened substantially, further widening the gap between developing and developed countries.

External indebtedness emerged as a main factor in the economic stalemate in the developing countries. Their capacity to service debt was seriously weakened as interest rates grew and terms of trade deteriorated. This problem has contributed to the fall in investment and the cessation of new financial flows. A long-term downward trend in the prices of...

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