One of the most important and controversial challenges feeing the international financial and trading system is the need for developing countries to meet their high and rapidly growing external debt obligations and foreign exchange requirements. Developing countries have suffered major shocks in the form of global recession, high real interest rates, weakened terms of trade, and rising protectionism against their exports. The International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, Western central banks, and private financial institutions are seeking to avoid a collapse of the international financial system, and developing countries are seeking to grow through increased trade and access to external financing. Yet the fragility of current international trade and monetary systems seriously threatens the achievement of both sets of objectives. Professor Loxley integrates the structural adjustment experience of Third World countries with the policies, practices, and relationships of external financial agents in his discussion of options for reforming policy and of the limitations inherent in implementing these reforms.
