For operational and analytical purposes, the World Bank's main criterion for classifying economies was gross national income (GNI) per capita.

In view of the difficulties that Iraq was experiencing in achieving the goals set out at the World Summit, a criterion relating to international sanctions should be introduced into the procedure for evaluating progress toward those goals in the course of the preceding decade, so that all obstacles could be identified; the point was particularly relevant in that the embargo, which had been imposed at the time of the holding of the World Summit, was still in place.