Consequences of the debt crisis

The indebtedness of the developing countries to foreign creditors which has expanded rapidly over the past few years rose by a further 18% last year and by the end of the year had reached the estimated level of $626 billion. The debt servicing for this sum amounted to $131 billion.¹ The rescheduling operations required as a result of the accumulating payment difficulties reached a volume of $40 billion. According to the Mexican Minister of Finance, the restructuring of Mexico's foreign debts alone was the largest multilateral support operation in modern financial history.²