United Nations A/RES/58/203 General Assembly Distr.: General 4 February 2004 Fifty-eighth session Agenda item 91 (e) Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 23 December 2003 [on the report of the Second Committee (A/58/481/Add.5)] 58/203. External debt crisis and development The General Assembly, Recalling its resolutions 51/164 of 16 December 1996, 52/185 of 18 December 1997, 53/175 of 15 December 1998, 54/202 of 22 December 1999, 55/184 of 20 December 2000, 56/184 of 21 December 2001 and 57/240 of 20 December 2002 on enhancing international cooperation towards a durable solution to the external debt problems of developing countries, Recalling also the United Nations Millennium Declaration adopted by heads of State and Government on 8 September 2000, 1 Reaffirming the Monterrey Consensus of the International Conference on Financing for Development, 2 which recognizes sustainable debt financing as an important element for mobilizing resources for public and private investment, Recalling its resolution 57/270 B of 23 June 2003 on the integrated and coordinated implementation of and follow-up to the outcomes of the major United Nations conferences and summits in the economic and social fields, Concerned that the current global economic recovery is uneven but determined to ensure that it leads to sustained world economic growth, to sustainable development and to a durable solution of the external debt problems of developing countries, Noting in this regard that the total debt stock of the developing countries rose from 1,421.6 billion dollars in 1990 to 2,384.2 billion dollars in 2002, Noting with great concern that the continuing debt and debt-servicing problems of the heavily indebted poor developing countries constitute one of the many elements that adversely affect their sustainable development efforts, and bearing in mind their impact on the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals, including those contained in the Millennium Declaration, _______________ 1 See resolution 55/2. Report of the International Conference on Financing for Development, Monterrey, Mexico, 18-22 March 2002 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.02.II.A.7), chap. I, resolution 1, annex. 2 03 50676