ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the outcomes of debt renegotiations between less developed states and official creditors. Noneconomic conditions and policies are considered to have little significance in influencing these events. On the contrary, though the politics of debt relief are secondary to the economics, the cases of the three countries examined here the effects of noneconomic factors on the outcome that are decisive. Chile and Brazil, with considerably more modernized economies than Ghana, had correspondingly more to lose in private foreign credit forgone as a result of repudiation. India's experience also demonstrates that debt relief is sometimes given deliberately as a form of development assistance in the absence of a debt servicing emergency. The cases of Brazil, Ghana, and Chile examined the effects of cyclical changes in the world economy, economic and financial practices of debtor governments, and policies of creditor governments in bringing about occasions of imminent or actual default and renegotiation.
