UN General Assembly
1988

While there; have been encouraging developments recently in the political sphere, the outlook in the area of international economic co-operation remains bleak. The low rates of growth of world trade and output in recent years will not suffice to resolve any of the major problems facing the world economy. In the industrialized countries high rates of unemployment persist, making it difficult for them to undertake the structural adjustments that ate necessary in the long term. The major imbalance, with its attendant uncertainties, continues to persist. For the developing countries the outlook is even worse. Inadequate resource flows, deteriorating terms of trade and the heavy burden of external debt have all but halted the development process of these countries. They have retarded attempts to address the fundamental problem of poverty and deprivation. The 1980s are being characterized as the lost decade of development.