UN General Assembly
1974

219. The unprecedented world-wide economic boom of recent years led to higher commodity prices prior to the recent increases in world oil prices. In turn these higher prices for raw materials found their way into the price of manufactured goods, and the resulting inflation coincided with a period in which the Bretton Woods system for controlling international monetary relationships fell into disarray. Collective action is now urgent if we are to ensure that the large surplus oil funds are used constructively to maintain demand and the level of world trade, because inevitably the surpluses of the oil producers are matched by deficits on the part of the consumers. 220. In our view it will be an error which will have global consequences if the oil consumers try individually to eliminate their oil-induced deficits in advance of international agreement on the disposal and investment of the oil producers. That way lies general recession, increasing poverty and social unrest The surplus must be taken into account.