WORLD TRADE AND PAYMENTS- Growing Disorder

WORLD TRADE AND PAYMENTS Growing Disorder R H Patil THE last five years have been perhaps the most trying period for the world economy in the last three decades. It witnessed the breakdown of the Bret- ton Woods system that had facilitated the integration of the world economy, despite the slow dismantling of barriers to international trade. The period saw the undermining of the supremacy of the US dollar and has been characterised by disorderly floating of currencies and movements of exchange rates. The last five years have also witnessed sharp increase in the unit values of de, the most severe recession in four decades, high levels of unemployment and entrenchment of high inflation rates in most parts of the world.