The debt crisis into which heavy borrowing, steeply rising interest rates, and a worldwide recession had plunged a number of developing countries in the late 1970s and 1980s was alleviated largely by policies and conditionalities imposed by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. These policies and conditions were meant to strengthen the export and financial markets of those countries, stabilize their currencies, and reduce the reach of their governments in their economies. However, they contributed to deepening poverty and structural crises, as the reports and data published by the international financial institutions themselves attest.
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