ABSTRACT
The long period extending from the end of the 1950s to 1973 was characterized by a rapidly increasing domestic demand and by a strong growth of the Gross Domestic Product in the countries of the OECD. The widespread apprehension of an economic slowdown in 1970 and in 1971 induced most national governments in the OECD area to embrace expansionary monetary policies whose effects were intensified by the ever continuing balance-of-payments deficits of the United States. At the end of this period in 1972 and in 1973, economic growth in these countries was accompanied by rising external deficits and by a strengthening of domestic inflationary pressures.
