Approaches to Aiding Eastern Europe

Western aid to Eastern Europe (excluding the USSR) in 1991 totalled $ 31 billion. To this sum must be added loans of $ 9 billion by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The larger part of Western support, however, has consisted only of commitments up till now; actual transactions reached only $ 1.2 billion for shipments of goods and $ 2.1 billion for loans. Austrian data show moreover that all budgetary items which are related to the opening of the East, such as the (planned) extension of the Austrian infrastructure in transportations, are labelled "Aid to the East".