ABSTRACT

This book is about macroeconomic problems of developing countries. Until quite recently, there was scarcely any independent analysis of such problems within the purview of mainstream macroeconomics. There were several reasons for this and two of them may be mentioned here. First, it was generally perceived that a traditional concern of macroeconomic theorycountercyclical stabilisation-was not very relevant to developing countries. It was felt that the most important concern of policy makers in developing countries was medium-and long-term growth and not short-term stabilisation. Second, there was a perception, almost up to the late 1980s, that the developing countries were not different from developed countries except for levels of per capita income and the like. The developed country represented to the developing country a mirror image of its future.