Net indebtedness of Central and Eastern Europe 1970-1990

The economic failures of the communist began to show throughout the 1970s, as the oil crises of 1973 to 1980 exposed the Eastern Bloc's many financial instabilities. The 1973-1975 Recession in the West had a knock-on effect on the Eastern Bloc, particularly on Poland and Romania, as Western debtors began demanding repayment, imports into the Eastern Bloc became more expensive, and exports were no longer in high demand. Growth rates also began to fall further at the end of the decade, as the post-war economic boom ended. At the beginning of the 1970s, Eastern Europe's debt totaled six billion U.S. dollars; by the end of the decade, it was almost 80 billion. Although austerity in the 1980s did bring some measure of control to the Eastern economies, it only limited the growth rate of indebtedness across the region, which eventually rose to 110 billion dollars (over a third of which belonged to Poland alone) when European communism fell, around 1990.

自20世纪70年代起，共产主义经济体制的失败迹象逐渐显现，1973年至1980年的石油危机暴露了东欧集团的众多财政不稳定因素。1973年至1975年的西方经济衰退对东欧集团产生了连锁反应，尤其是对波兰和罗马尼亚，因为西方债务人开始要求偿还债务，东欧集团的进口成本上升，而出口需求不再旺盛。随着战后经济繁荣的结束，该十年的末期，经济增长率也开始进一步下降。20世纪70年代初，东欧的债务总额为60亿美元；到十年结束时，这一数字几乎达到了800亿美元。尽管20世纪80年代的紧缩政策在一定程度上对东欧经济进行了控制，但它仅限制了该区域债务增长的速度，最终在1990年左右，即欧洲共产主义崩溃之际，债务总额上升至1100亿美元（其中波兰一国就占超过三分之一）。