8. A relatively small percentage of government spending in LDCs is on health, social
security, and welfare, and a relatively high percentage on infrastructure.
9. The annual inflation rate in LDCs increased from less than 10 percent in the
1960s to over 20 percent in the 1970s and over 70 percent in the 1980s, but fell
to 16 percent in the 1990s. The highest inflation rates, in Latin America, dropped
to about 30 percent yearly in the 1990s.
10. Demand–pull is not an adequate explanation for inflation in LDCs. Inflation may
be cost–push (from the market power of businesses and unions), ratchet (from
rigid prices downward), or structural (slow export growth and inelastic food
supply), with added momentum, once started, from inflationary expectations.
Policies to moderate inflation include market-clearing exchange rates, wage–price
controls, antimonopoly measures, land reform, structural change from agriculture
to industry, and improved income distribution. With the possible exception
of exchange-rate policy, most LDCs lack the administrative and political strength
to undertake these policies, especially in the immediate future.
11. Countries with high rates of inflation may use incomes policy – wage and price
guidelines or controls, and exchange-rate fixing – together with monetary and
fiscal stabilization to reduce increases in the price index.
12. Some economists argue that inflation can promote economic growth by redistributing
income from low savers to high savers. However, inflation distorts
resource allocation, weakens capital markets, imposes a tax on money holders,
undermines rational business behavior, increases income inequality, hurts the
balance of trade, and, beyond the early stages of inflation, probably does not
redistribute income to high savers.
13. Yet, recent evidence indicates that inflation less than 30–40 percent yearly does
not hamper growth, indicating that LDCs probably should not be preoccupied
with controlling mild inflation.
14. The LDC money markets are often highly oligopolistic and financially repressive,
distorting interest rates, foreign exchange rates, and other financial prices.
Government protects oligopolistic banks to be able to tap savings at low interest
rates. If political elites have the will to undertake financial liberalization, they
can reduce inflation and spur growth.
15. When financial markets channel funds to those with productive investment
opportunities poorly, the economy operates inefficiently, as in Asia during the
1997–98 financial crisis.