| The World Bank Group. Global
Development Finance 1998 Preface
Global Development Finance was formerly published as World
Debt Tables. The new name reflects the report’s expanded scope and greater
coverage of private financial flows.
Global Development Finance consists of two volumes: Analysis
and Summary Tables and Country Tables. Analysis and Summary Tables contains
analysis and commentary on recent developments in international finance for developing
countries, with particular focus on the East Asian financial crisis. Summary statistical
tables are included for selected regional and analytical groups comprising 150 developing
countries.
Country Tables contains statistical tables on the external
debt of the 138 countries that report public and publicly guaranteed debt under the Debtor
Reporting System (DRS). Also included are tables of selected debt and resource flow
statistics for individual reporting countries as well as summary tables for regional and
income groups. Reported for the first time are the external debt obligations of Eritrea
and South Africa.
For the convenience of readers, charts on pages xi to xiii
summarize graphically the relation between debt stock and its components; the computation
of net flows, aggregate net resource flows, and aggregate net transfers; and the relation
between net resource flows and the balance of payments (a discussion of the relation
between net resource flows and balance of payments is also provided in box 1.1 in Analysis
and Summary Tables ). Exact definitions of these and other terms used in Global
Development Finance are found in the Sources and Definitions section.
The economic aggregates presented in the tables are prepared for
the convenience of users; their inclusion is not an endorsement of their value for
economic analysis. Although debt indictors can give useful information about developments
in debt-servicing capacity, conclusions drawn from them will not be valid unless
accompanied by careful economic evaluation. The macroeconomic information provided is from
standard sources, but many of them are subject to considerable margins of error, and the
usual care must be taken in interpreting the indicators. This is particularly true for the
most recent year or two, when figures are preliminary and subject to revision.
| This report was prepared by a team led by William Shaw and Fred
Kilby under the direction of Uri Dadush. Team members included Abayomi Alawode, Milan
Brahmbhatt, Dipak Dasgupta, Ashok Dhareshwar, Persa Economu, Jason Lee Furman, Kumiko
Imai, Ken Itakura, Jalal Jalali, Ronald Johannes, Kwang Jun, Himmat Kalsi, Eun Ju Kim,
Noga Lewin, Rinzin Lhamu, Robert Lynn, Carmini Michelitsch, Mustapha Nabli, Malvina
Pollock, Michael Pomerleano, Mick Riordan, Sergei Shatalov, T.G. Srinivasan, Abdel
Stambouli, Manuel Trucco, and Chiaki Yamamoto. The team benefited from comments from
Joseph Stiglitz, Masood Ahmed, and Amarendra Bhattacharya, comments from John Williamson
and Jed Shilling, discussants at the Bankwide review, a summary of the HIPC Debt
Initiative by Marc Stephens and Jeffrey Katz, assistance from the regional chief
economists, and input from numerous Bank staff. The chapter on East Asia also draws on the
forthcoming Asian Development Bank-World Bank volume "Managing Financial Integration
in Asia." The team was assisted by Sarah Crow, Chi Ezenwa, Sheilah King-Watson,
Margarita Ortiz, and Jacquelyn Queen. Meta de Coquereaumont and Paul Holtz were the
principal editors. The volume was laid out by Garrett Cruce and Glenn McGrath. Daphne
Levitas assisted in project management. The work was carried out under the overall
management of Masood Ahmed and Joseph Stiglitz. |
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