of the United Nations during the coming biennium. In that regard, it was important to bear in mind the lessons of the work of the United Nations economic bodies during the past year. In particular, the fortieth session of the General Assembly had reflected a greater understanding by many States of the real causes of the exacerbation of the world economic crisis and of the continued obstacles to the restructur­ ing of international economic relations on a just and democratic basis. Representatives of the developing countries had emphasized that the world economy was suffering from stagnation and inequality and that the arms race posed an unprecedented danger to mankind, involving the squandering of economic resources at a time when millions of people suffered from poverty and hunger. Participants in the session had also criticized the policy of high interest rates, the artificial lowering of prices for raw materials, protectionism and other methods of exploitation and discrimination in world trade which added to the economic problems of the developing countries. 18. At its fortieth session, the General Assembly had adopted a number of important resolutions concerning the current state of international econom­ ic relations and ways of further developing the economic activities of the United Nations. Further­ more, the work of the United Nations economic bodies in 1985 had shown that the overwhelming majority of States rejected attempts to present the situation in those bodies as a kind of "crisis of multilateralism" and, under that pretext, to impose 2nd meeting-4 February 1986 3 the idea of a so-called "new economic consensus". Such ideas merely reflected the desire of their supporters to negate all the positive results achieved in the economic activities of the United Nations in recent years, to turn those activities to the benefit of 
**Analysis**
The text discusses the current state of international economic relations, highlighting the challenges faced by developing countries, such as stagnation, inequality, and exploitation. It also mentions the adoption of important resolutions by the General Assembly and the rejection of the idea of a "new economic consensus". This suggests that the text is primarily focused on economic issues, with a emphasis on international trade and economic development.

**Category**
International trade, Economic development