UN General Assembly
1983

157. I use the metaphor deliberately, for the developing countries are now in sore need of a lifeline. The level of our indebtedness has continued to rise and now exceeds $600 billion. On the average, over 20 per cent of the export earnings of the developing countries must now be set aside for the purpose of meeting debt payments. For some countries, the critical debt-service ratio is much higher. To compound matters, private lending, which has assumed an increasingly important role in international financing, has virtually dried up in 1983. Indeed, we should not be in error as to the real role of that private lending in recent years. Many countries of the South have been desperately treading water—borrowing not to move ahead, but simply to keep from going under. The developing countries will be in debt for the foreseeable future. Debt is a condition of development and thus debt management, in the long term, is an aspect of development.