UN General Assembly
1989

Yet another disturbing development is the exploitation of the vulnerability imposed upon us by our foreign debt. The developing countries are being pressured to conform to a model of adjustment which is not often followed by the industrialized countries. Budgets are being balanced at enormous social cost and at the price of State bankruptcy, wages are being depressed below subsistence levels, scant attention is being paid to the legitimate aspirations of infant industries and to balance-of-payments requirements, the public sector has kindled even in those areas in which the need for action is greatest, such as education and health. No attention is being paid to the fact that the primary need of the debtor countries is to grow and that only through accelerated growth can they introduce the necessary economic reforms. fulfil their commitments and contribute, as they have in the past, to global progress.