World Debt, Financing, Structural Adjustment and the Official Sector

Over recent years both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have introduced programmes or facilities which, at least in name, address the problem of structural adjustment. The Bank started making Structural Adjustment Loans (SALs) in 1980, and the Fund set up its Structural Adjustment Facility (SAF) in 1986. It is therefore an appropriate time to be asking what contribution the official sector can make towards assisting structural adjustment in indebted developing countries, and whether existing institutional arrangements are adequate as they stand or could be improved.