ABSTRACT
Since the final months of 1982, Brazil has been involved in the laborious process of rescheduling its external debt. Renegotiating a debt as large as Brazil's is of course a most difficult task. According to official data, in March 1983 Brazil's foreign debt was in the range of US$86 billion of which US$57 billion had been provided by foreign private banks operating within the Bank for International Settlements' reporting area. This chapter describes how Brazil's external financial relations have evolved, highlighting the major drawbacks in rescheduling procedures. It focuses on the origins of the balance-of-payments crisis and the impact it has had on Brazil's international reserves. The chapter discusses the reasons for the early failure of the first phase of debt renegotiations from December 1982 to mid-1983. It deals with the general outline of the financing and rescheduling agreement for 1984, under negotiation.
