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New Analysis: Understanding IMF Debt Sustainability Analyses.
The IMF is a powerful gatekeeper for financing and debt relief and sets the macroeconomic parameters and incentives for governments on how to deal with a critical external debt situation. At the centre of this are the IMF’s debt sustainability analyses. With a de facto monopoly on these analyses comes…
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New Focus Paper: “Debt crisis not yet bad enough” – How creditors downplay the need to act
136 out of 152 countries in the Global South are at least slightly critically indebted, 40 of them very critically. Without urgently needed reforms of the international debt architecture, the latest wave of debt crises in the Global South cannot be solved. The leaders of the World Bank and the…
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Ecuador – Credit Suisse: a debt for nature swap is something different
The purchase of $1.63 billion in Ecuadorian debt on the secondary market by the major Swiss bank Credit Suisse (CS) received considerable media attention in early May. Due to the country's critical economic situation, Ecuador's government bonds, which mature between 2030 and 2040, were trading between 35.5 and 53.25 percent…
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Out now: Global Sovereign Debt Monitor 2023
Despite the slight recovery of the global economic situation in 2021 before the beginning of the Ukraine war, the debt situation in the majority of countries in the Global South remains tense. While policy-makers are calling for the improvement of debt relief procedures, the interests of different creditor groups are…
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In Search for Consensus. A Sovereign Insolvency Procedure as a Way Out of the Debt Crisis?
“The issue of sustainable debt is probably one of the biggest challenges we're currently facing. We are talking about fighting climate change, we're talking about global challenges such as migration, digital transformation. And when certain countries are facing an unsustainable level of debt, we really need to have a new…
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New focus paper: The Potential of National Legislation for the Fair Resolution of Global Debt Crises
To effectively deal with debt crises, it is crucial to ensure the participation of all creditors, especially private creditors in debt relief measures. But how can uncooperative creditors be prevented from suing for their claims in national courts, thereby undermining multilateral agreements? This new focus paper examines the potential that…
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G7 campaign: Global Justice needs #CancelTheDebt!
The pandemic has exacerbated the debt situation in the Global South: 135 out of 148 countries are critically indebted. More than three times as many countries as before the pandemic are already in debt crisis or directly threatened by debt distress. While there are insolvency procedures for individuals and companies, there is no…
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Out now: Global Sovereign Debt Monitor 2022
In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the global debt situation has deteriorated. Countries in all regions of the world will emerge from the pandemic with unsustainable debt levels. While it was possible to avoid a massive sovereign default wave in 2021, in many cases, this was only possible through…
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New Focus Paper: Vulnerability as a basis for debt relief
In the current handling of sovereign debt crises, creditors separate countries into needy and non-needy according to their income levels. This has led to questionable results in the past. On the initiative of countries that were excluded from debt relief despite a high risk of over-indebtedness, the United Nations has…
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WORLD BANK: COMMON FRAMEWORK INSUFFICIENT
After the IMF Director Kristalina Georgieva had already pointed out the inadequacies of the Common Framework of the G20 for the restructuring of sovereign debt in clear words in December, the World Bank is now following suit. In the Global Economic Prospects published on 11 January, the authors dedicate a…
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