UN General Assembly
1989

In point of fact, the deterioration of the terms of trade and the fall in raw-material prices, to say nothing of the volume of debt, excessive servicing charges and the ensuing transfer of wealth to creditor countries, constitute so many heavy burdens encumbering developing countries and crippling their development efforts. As regards international monetary relations, it is worthwhile pointing to the negative trends that have recently emerged as a result of changes introduced in the system of financial aid transfers to developing countries and, in particular, the drying up of capital flows in the direction of medium-income countries - a Phenomenon at once surprising and deplorable when we consider the efforts to ensure those countries' recovery and the bold measures they have taken, imposing enormous sacrifices upon their peoples, in order to emerge from underdevelopment by relying mainly on their own means and resources. It goes without saying that the bold decisions recently taken by a number of industrialized nations to cancel the debts of sons least-developed countries constitute a large and praiseworthy step towards alleviating the third-world debt