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 Tito |
| 3. THE TITO YEARS AND THE END OF THE
COLD WAR |
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| Tito’s communist regime brought unity, stability
and relative prosperity to Yugoslavia. His break with Stalin and advent of the cold war
placed Yugoslavia in a favored position between two great powers. Yugoslavia became
eligible for loans from the International Monetary Fund (I.M.F.) and eligible for
membership in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and entry into association
agreements with the European Community (EC) and the European Free Trade Association
(EFTA). |
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| As one of the founders of the
non-aligned movement, Tito’s Yugoslavia enjoyed a high level of international
prestige. Its citizens were allowed freedom of travel and in comparison with most of the
other countries in the Eastern block, Yugoslavs, whether Serb, Croat, Macedonian or
Slovene, were proud of their country’s status and achievements. |
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| However, things began to go
wrong for Yugoslavia in the early 1980’s. Tito died in 1980 and his death coincided
with the beginning of a serous economic depression. Throughout the 1970’s, Yugoslavia
like many other countries had borrowed heavily from the IMF and commercial banks. The era
of massive global lending come to an abrupt end in 1979. Sharp rises in oil prices
occurred and interest rates jumped to double digits. Remittances from Yugoslavia’s
guest workers abroad, which had financed half of the Yugoslav deficit since the
1960’s, fell dramatically as thousands of workers were forced to return home. |
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