The least developed countries report 2010: toward a new international development architecture for LDCs

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development

Over the past three decades, the LDCs have been following a development strategy designed to release the creative potential of market forces by reducing the role of the State in the development process. For the first two of those decades, there was little indication that this strategy was working. But after the turn of the millennium, with the emergence of new Asian growth drivers and favourable movements in the terms of trade, economic growth began to accelerate. Some observers attributed this to the market - oriented policy reforms undertaken by a number of LDCs, though others raised doubts about their pattern of growth. Surging commodity prices, in some cases driven by peculative investment, debt forgiveness, increased aid flows, remittances and foreign direct investment (FDI) seemed vulnerable to a global economic downturn. There were also concerns that growth was not translating into substantial improvement in human well-being. When commodity prices suddenly fell at the end of 2008, heralding a bust in the global economic cycle, many LDCs experienced a sharp slowdown, with major adverse social consequences. It was clear from this that markets are not only creative but also can be destructive.