international financial institutions and feel that they lack recourse to appeal when conflicts arise. (c) Debt and development finance 57. There has been some inclination to believe now that the immediate debt crises have been contained, that successful ways of continued "muddling through" have been found. In the view of the Committee, this is far from certain. Persistent external and internal imbalances in the large industrial countries raise doubts about the sustainability of the recovery in the OECD countries. A precipitant decline in the value of the dollar and a slow-down in capital flows to the United States may produce a sharp increase in dollar interest rates which would again make the situation acute. And the possibility of abrupt changes in the price of oil cannot be discounted. The impact of the recovery today has, in any case, been uneven and it has not helped the large majority of debtor countries which depend on a few primary commodities for export earnings, and on official sources for financial flows, as tends to be the case in Africa. 58. Adjustment in Latin American debtor countries has produced substantial trade surpluses. The sustained political viability of such situations cannot, however, be taken for granted. It is, in any case, surely premature and inappropriate for developing countries to be returning real resources to industrialized ones at this stage in their development. 59. Taking a longer view, the experience of rapid debt expansion in the 1970s, and subsequent financial paralysis and shock in the early 1980s, must raise further questions about the adequacy of the international monetary and financial system. The challenge posed by the debt problem is not merely that of the management of crises or potential crises. It must surely now be possible to achieve greater 
**Analysis**
The text appears to be discussing the debt crisis and its impact on international financial institutions, developing countries, and the global economy. It highlights the potential risks and uncertainties surrounding the recovery of the economy and the debt situation, particularly for countries that are heavily reliant on primary commodities and official financial flows.

**Category**
Economic development, International trade