ABSTRACT
The impact of increased oil prices is far-reaching and so intertwined with other economic events that it is difficult to determine the extent to which it has affected less-developed as opposed to industrialized countries. The industrialized countries able to afford the higher payments in real terms, and their financial positions have been spared because of increased Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) purchases from them, investments in them, and holding of reserves in their bank accounts or other financial instruments. Balance-of-payments statements are published by the International Monetary Fund in both International Financial Statistics (IFS) and the Balance-of-Payments Yearbook (BPY). Normally, the IFS data are more up-to-date, but for the study it was as convenient to use BPY. The non-oil-exporting LDCs paid more in real terms for oil, both in direct payments to OPEC members and indirectly through the purchase, at higher prices, of petroleum products from industrialized countries. These real payments lessened their abilities to carry out development programs.
