I don't have a quick answer on that one, but there is no doubt that it helped as Poland had a very large external debt. I think you are right about the 50% number.
The obvious contrast is with Hungary that did not take a writeoff on its large external debt. That has bogged them down and they have had slower growth than Poland, although in general already more market-oriented Hungary has adopted a more "gradualist" strategy. The flip side, both good and bad has been that foreign investors have been invited in and have felt "safe" about going into Hungary, which has been by far the largest recipient of FDI among the CEECs (with the possible exception of the former GDR, if one counts investment from the formerly "West" Germany as FDI). As I noted, the Poles have been much more cautious about letting in FDI for various reasons. Barkley Rosser On Wed, 15 Jul 1998 15:29:26 -0400 Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> Thanks for your observations on Poland, Barkley. How much did the debt
> writeoff help? It was about 50%, no?
>
> Doug
>
>
-- Rosser Jr, John Barkley rosserjb at jmu.edu