UN General Assembly
1983

13. It has become clear that the debt problem of the developing countries is one of the major problems confronting us, as these debts have risen to more than $700 billion, with an annual average of debt-servicing surpassing $120 billion, as a result of the reduction in the prices of raw materials produced by those countries totalling 30 per cent during the past two years, as well as the feverish increase in interest rates and the prices of finished products. Consequently, negative repercussions will adversely affect social and economic development efforts in the developing countries. 14. On the other hand, we should be fully aware of the necessity of introducing structural changes in the existing international monetary, financing and trading systems in view of their inability to cope with the problems now plaguing the world economy even though they functioned actively for a quarter of a century after the Second World War. 15. Allow me to present here a general outline which could contribute to strengthening our ability to deal with such problems.