Default's in the 1990's: what have we learned?

Abstract

The principal focus of this chapter is on sovereign defaults on external debt in the 1990s and the lessons that have been learned. The rest of the chapter is organized as follows. Section II explains the meaning of debt default, why countries default on their debt obligations, and the benefits of restructuring debt. Section III examines the approaches to resolving sovereign debt crises in the 1990s, and compares these approaches with the debt restructuring framework of the 1980s. Section V offers some lessons for the future.