The corrosion behaviour of several austenitic and ferritic stainless steels was studied in the KCl-NaCl-BaCl2 melt (molar ratio 1:1:1) at 600 degrees C in the absence and presence of 0.1 molal sodium salts with different oxyanions, namely, Na2CO3, Na2O2, Na2SO3, Na2SO4, Na3PO4 and Na4P2O7. The corrosion rate, determined from analysis of the melt by atomic absorption, was found to agree well with that determined from anodic polarization and decreased with increasing percentage Cr in the alloy. The presence of the oxyanions led to a decrease in the corrosion rate in the order: P2O74-< PO43-< SO32-< SO42-< O-2(2-)< CO32- which runs parallel to the order of increasing ability of O2- ion donation and indicates that the inhibition process involves the formation of a passivating film on the surface. All stainless steels were found to suffer a significant selective leaching of chromium and among all the oxyanions tested, only CO32- anions suppressed the dechromization in the KCl-NaCl-BaCl2 melt significantly.