The Changing International Economic System

Abstract

The current evolution of the global economic environment presents serious challenges for many developing countries. In the short term, global adjustment to the economic and political turbulence of the past decade has left a legacy that points uniformly to a more adverse international environment for developing countries. In the medium and longer term, the evolution of more deep-seated global structural factors suggests a much more mixed prospect for different developing countries. It is not, however, a prospect that would justify an optimistic prognosis for Southern African countries in the absence of determined and effective policy responses on their part.