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Abstract
Most Developing countries at one time or another have faced the need for macroeconomic adjustment. Such a need typically arises when a country experiences a persisting imbalance between aggregate domestic demand and aggregate supply, reflected in a worsening of its external payments and an increase in inflation. While in certain cases external factors, such as an exogenous deterioration of the terms of trade or an increase in foreign interest rates, can be responsible for the emergence of the basic demand-supply imbalances, these imbalances can often be traced to inappropriate domestic policies that expand domestic demand too rapidly relative to the productive capacity of the economy. As long as adequate foreign financing is available, the relative expansion of domestic demand can be sustained for an extended period, albeit at the cost of a widening deficit in the current account of the balance of payments, a loss of international reserves, rising inflation, worsening international competitiveness, falling growth, and a heavier foreign debt burden. Eventually, however, the country would lose international creditworthiness, and as foreign credits ceased, adjustment would be necessary. This type of forced adjustment could prove to be very disruptive for the economy.
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