Foreign Assistance a Study of the World Bank's Lending

Abstract

Much concern on the international scene has been on debt to less developed countries (LDCs). News about a world financial crisis are common. Reasons for this were the quadrupling of oil prices and the world wide recession in 1973, which hit the poorest countries the hardest. "Their fuel bills and the cost of their development projects increased dramatically, while demand for their exports fell as a result of the recession in industrial countries.” The following table shows LDCs long term debt to private banks, other governments, multilateral financial institutions and other private lenders.