ABSTRACT
International trade statistics support the thesis that the Less Developed Country (LDC) external indebtedness continues to grow at an extremely high rate. The LDC overall indebtedness increased once again in 1980 because of the further rise in oil prices in mid-1979. While the level of oil prices is only one of many factors affecting adversely the financial position and the growth prospects of the majority of the LDCs, the impact of the present "oil crisis" on the LDC indebtedness is considerable. Due to the stagnation of foreign development assistance flows and the relative small entries of private foreign investment most of the current account deficit of the LDCs is covered by borrowing from private financial markets. There are reasons to believe that the problem of the LDC external debt is even more serious than it looks on the basis of available statistical data and the evidence is accumulating that it is losing its "manageability".
