ABSTRACT
In fiscal terms, President Fujimori was committed to the reform programme, as supported by the World Bank and the IMF, and this despite the effect it first predictably and then demonstrably had on his people. It is known that adjustment policies have merely diverted resources away from the domestic economy and the people themselves and the services they require to live a decent life. Peru has also been encouraged by such policies to keep importing large quantities of consumer goods, including food staples, from rich countries, rendering it even more depend ent on the first world. This process has brought about an enlargement of the balance-of-payments crisis and the growth of the debt burden. Flying in the face of distressing evidence, the World Bank ( 1993) continued to maintain that adjusting is more beneficial to health and welfare than not adjusting, and that any negative impacts are purely temporary. This claim is contrary to the evidence, not only in Peru, but in many indebted countries in the third world.
