POL201Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Structural Adjustment, International Financial Institutions, World Bank Institute
Document Summary
The global debt crisis, neo-liberal reforms and their. In august 1982, the debt crisis was recognized when mexico announced a moratorium on its foreign loan repayments. Brazil and other countries announced that they were unable to meet servicing deadlines. Interest rates shot up and, at the same time, global demand for exports from developing countries fell. The deep recession of 1980-81 made it impossible for developing countries to generate sufficient income to pay back their loans on schedule. Most indebted countries sought to reschedule their loans in consultation with the world bank and the imf. The policy response of these international financial institutions (ifis)was in the form of structural adjustment programs (saps) and structural. Saps aimed to maximize the prospects for, and amounts of repayments by debtor countries, with little thought for the national repercussions of these repayments for heavily indebted nations.