Abstract
The so-called international1 debt crisis now lasts since the Mexican announcement not to continue service on its external debt in August 1982. As is illustrated by table 1, the total amount of external debt of less-industrialized countries2 increased from US$ 839 billion in 1982 to an estimated US$ 1319 billion in 1990. Many of these countries experienced payment problems and underwent reschedulings of their foreign debt. Almost two thirds of the debt of the severely indebted middle income countries in this period has been owed to private commercial banks (cf. table 1).
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This term is used in a very broad sense. It characterizes all phenomena that involve at least two nations, jurisdictions or currencies. It often also extends to cultures although, for such cases, “intercultural” would be the more appropriate term.
The use of the term “developing country” will be avoided wherever possible. Two implications of this term appear to make its use inappropriate for the context in which it is most often used. The first implication lies in its distinction from “industrialized country” which suggests that these do not develop or may at least have no need for development. In fact, in terms of industrial structure or econonomic growth “industrialized countries” often develop faster than “less-industrialized countries”. The second implication is more fundamental as it suggests the existence of a need of development, the perception of which may or may not exist. The term “less-industrialized country” will be used instead. In addition the terms “rescheduling country” and “debtor country” will be used interchangeably as they reflect much more closely the phenomena investigated here.
For a short account of the broad range of perceived reasons for the debt crisis cf. Holtz [1988, 13seqq.]. For overviews of proposals for “solutions” v. Kettell/Magnus [1986, 163seqq.] and Wertman [1987].
Here, the term German always refers to the Federal Republic of Germany.
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© 1990 Betriebswirtschaftlicher Verlag Dr. Th. Gabler GmbH, Wiesbaden
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Berger, W. (1990). Introduction. In: Financial Innovations in International Debt Management. nbf Neue Betriebswirtschaftliche Forschung, vol 73. Gabler Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-322-89330-7_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-322-89330-7_1
Publisher Name: Gabler Verlag
Print ISBN: 978-3-409-13733-1
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