scissors crisis

scissors crisis (plural scissors crises)

1. (economics) An economic crisis caused by price scissors, that is, an unfavourable divergence in the prices paid by a particular group or country for products that it needs as against the prices of the products that it produces.
   • 1993, Stuart Corbridge, “Ethics in Development Studies: The Example of Debt”, in Frans J. Schuurman, editor, Beyond the Impasse: New Directions in Development Theory, →ISBN, page 126:

     Meanwhile, real commodity prices were falling sharply for most non-oil products as the world economy moved into its deepest recession since the 1930s. With the debtor countries also facing a strong and ever-strengthening US dollar in the early-mid 1980s, it is perhaps not surprising that Brazil and Venezuela (in 1983) followed Mexico (August 1982) into default on their debt repayments. All of these countries were caught in a scissors crisis not apparently of their own making.