Public and Private Savings of Selected Developing Countries in the First UN Development Decade

The developed countries contain about one-third of the world population and they produce more than 80 percent of Gross World Product (GWP). The remaining two-thirds of the population of our Globe who lives in Asia, Latin America and most of Africa produces less than 20 percent of the GWP. A small segment of the population of these countries is wealthy but the overwhelming majority subsists on substandard incomes and is characterised by mass illiteracy, mal-nutrition, bad housing and lack of medical care. Because of these characteristics they have low productivity, which yields low level of income; low incomes, in turn, imply a small capacity to save resulting in an economic situation where there is barely a possibility to moblize resources for development. The question has often been raised: ‘Is there way out for the developing countries’ ? 1960s were declared as the First UN Development Decade and it was hoped that during these years the pre-conditions for a successful development would be established in various developing countries. The present study analyses data on public revenue, public expenditure, public savings and private savings for 12 selected developing countries pertaining to the years of the First U.N. Development Decade. The general conclusion that emerges from the study clearly suggests that with appropriate economic policies resources for development can be mobilized in the developing countries.