ABSTRACT
Held just over two weeks prior to the Toronto Economic Summit of the Group of Seven industrialized countries, our Conference on the Future of the International Monetary System identified the key problems facing the world economy as it approaches the 1990s and considered a variety of solutions. No consensus was reached but relevant options were aired. The same major problems discussed by the Conference participants were recognized in the communiqué issued by the leaders of the G-7 countries following the Toronto Summit. These include large imbalances in the major industrialized countries, the substantial volatility of exchange rates and the debt-servicing difficulties of many developing countries. However, the modest international initiatives taken at the Summit fall far short of resolving the world's economic problems. More attention will have to be paid to comprehensive solutions as suggested by the papers in this volume.
