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New analysis: No more loans? How creditors torpedo debt relief initiatives
The debt relief initiatives established in the context of the COVID-19 crisis threaten to fail because poorer countries are reluctant to participate. One reason for this is the claim made primarily by private creditors that the beneficiaries of debt relief exclude themselves long-term from the capital market. However, more important…
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New Analysis: The Tunisian debt crisis in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic: Debt repayments over human rights?
At the beginning of the pandemic in spring 2020, it was not so much the health crisis, which hit developing countries like Tunisia hard. While Europe and the US struggled with the health impact of the pandemic, it was the global economic impact, which devastated the Tunisian economy. In April…
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New Focus Paper: Debt Sustainability in Times of Climate Disaster and Corona
In recent years, the effects of the climate crisis, exacerbated since March 2020 by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, have graphically highlighted what it means for heavily-indebted countries to be hit by external shocks. While the international debt architecture has responded, nevertheless, little has changed in terms of its…
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New Focus Paper: Participation of Multilateral Development Banks in Debt Relief
Since April 2020, the members of the G20 and the Paris Club have granted up to 73 of the poorest countries a debt moratorium aimed at creating fiscal scope to facilitate combating the COVID-19 pandemic. Since November 2020, a debate has been ongoing over whether to grant real debt relief…
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Out now: Global Sovereign Debt Monitor 2021
The coronavirus pandemic has further exacerbated the debt crisis in the Global South. Countries with low to middle incomes, whose economies were already unstable, are the most affected of all by the effects of recession, and their debt servicing ability has been substantially weakened. Download the full report here. At…
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New educational material on sovereign debt and climate change
As part of our 2020 campaign "Climate justice needs debt relief", erlassjahr.de produced four new educational activities on the complex topic of sovereign debt and climate change, targeted at pupils in secondary education (age 16 to 19). The activities complement the brochure "Debt crises affect people" (activities 1-12), published in…
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New focus papers on DSSI and IMF forecasts out now
Focus paper 3: "A debt moratorium for whom?" Given that the G20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) currently is more or less the only group-wise debt relief initiative in the COVID19-context, and given that one of its most important limitations so far has not been resolved, which is the…
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Global Week of Action for Debt Cancellation – A Call to Action
The multiple crises of the COVID-19 pandemic, the intensified economic recession, and the climate emergency has spotlighted the urgency for raising the calls for debt cancellation and addressing unsustainable and illegitimate debt. In this context, many movements, organizations and citizens groups are coming together for a Global Week of Action…
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New Campaign: Climate Justice Needs Debt Relief
+++ The campaign ended in December 2020. Thanks to everyone who participated! We promise: We will keep climate justice on our agenda! +++ Hurricane Maria swept across the Caribbean island of Dominica in 2017, completely devastating it. It was a natural, but also a financial disaster for the island nation,…
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Global Sovereign Debt Monitor 2020
The global debt crisis is gripping more and more countries in the Global South. It is threatening the livelihoods of millions of people. At the same time, many over-indebted countries are suffering massively from the impacts of climate change. Bone crushing debt servicing is hampering urgently needed adaptation measures. Download…
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