32 SOCIAL SCIENTIST The Background When m the early 1970s the nations forming the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) massed their strength and drove up oil prices, they obviously altered the trade fortunes of the other nations in an interdependent world .OPEC surpluses had two rather divergent effects on the balance of payments of the less developed countries (LDCs), with the incidence of each varying across nations. First, since these surpluses were financed by substantially higher oil prices, they resulted in massive increases in the import bills of the oil importing LDCs. Second, they financed a construction-cum-consumption boom in West Asia, which attracted human and material resources from the rest of the world including the LDCs. This resulted in an inflow of foreign exchange through larger exports and remittances and helped finance a part of the burgeoning oil bills that the oil importers had to meet. These developments did not pass India by .The initial increase in her oil import bill was followed by an expansion of exports to West Asia as well as by the creation of a migration trail that took Indian masons, carpenters, technicians and professionals to unfamiliar lands. The importance of the former should not be underestimated since India achieved a creditable export volume growth of 7.3 per cent during the seventies (10.2 per cent between 1972-73 and 1976-77); when import volumes in her major markets were expanding at only 4-4.5 per cent per annum.' (See Table I), iNot surprisingly, Table I Average Annual Growth of World Imports and GDP, 1970-80 (Percent Industrial Market Economies Low Income Economies Middle Income Economies Oil importers Oil exporters Import Volume Real GDP 4.4 3.1 4.2 3.8 8.9 3.2 4.6 5.6 5.6 5.5 Indian Export Growth f 1970-80^ • 7.3% SOURCE : World Bank, Souui Asia Programs, india Division, Sttwuwn and Prospects of the Indian Economy—A Medium Term Perspective, Report No. 4962-In, April 16, 1984.