Major disturbances in their global environment such as the world-wide recession in the early 1980s, in increasing protectionism in the EC and the US, large exchange rate fluctuations, high and volatile real interest rates and commodity price shocks have not prevented developing Asian countries...

Most low income countries are characterised by a high dependence on exports of a small number of agricultural or mineral commodities. In the 1980s, the economic and social performance of these countries has been extremely dismal. Declining per capita incomes, stagnating food production, and an...