UN General Assembly
1974

202. In view of the series of crises in recent years, both economic and monetary, it is not surprising that the States Members of the United Nations, developing and developed alike, will give high priority and attention to economic issues at this twenty-ninth session. My delegation agrees with the view of the Secretary-General, Mr. Kurt Waldheim, that the economic upheavals and portents of the past three years are not a series of isolated events, but are rather symptoms of a profound malfunctioning of the global economy. The high prices of oil, the spiraling inflation, the inflated costs of manufactured products, the non-availability of fertilizers, the grim prospect of a substantial decrease in food production and the breakdown of the international monetary system are all interrelated events which could result in prolonged economic stagnation on a global scale, a stagnation of extraordinary dimensions.