ABSTRACT
A secondary market for developing-country debt has emerged and grown rapidly since the onset of the debt crisis in 1982. Over the past eight years, this market has become deeper and broader. The number and average size of annual transactions has increased along with the number and type of market participants. Commercial banks, intent on reducing developingcountry exposure and minimizing default risk, and developing countries, wishing to reduce the level of outstanding external debt, to lower debt service and attract foreign investment, have both increasingly participated. Non-bank private investors, investment banks, brokers and speculators have also been active players.
