Relieving the debt burden: historical experience and present need

The rapid growth of the Latin American external debt from the mid-1970s onwards has been due to factors both of demand and supply, which bear witness to the co-responsibility of creditors and debtors. This co-responsibility, however, is not reflected in the distribution between the two parties of the burden of the debt: a situation which has caused a change not only in the magnitude but also in the direction of the net flows of real resources between the region and the rest of the world. Thus, between 1960 and 1980 the countries of the region were recipients of an annual net transfer of real resources from abroad equal to around 1 % of their gross domestic product, but since the first half of the 1980s. these countries have contributed to the rest of the world close on 4% of their gross domestic product per year. Although the figures vary from country to country, the general trend is the same for all.