UN agency calls for $1 trillion developing world debt write-off
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development says developing world needs debt write-off to overcome Covid-19 fallouts since they are already struggling with a rapidly growing debt burden.
Homeless men approach a car from where a Muslim man offers "zakat", or alms, given to poor people during Ramadan, in Fordsburg, Johannesburg, on April 23, 2020.
Around $1 trillion of debt owed by developing countries should be cancelled under a global deal proposed by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) on Thursday to help them overcome the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.
The world's developing economies, which were already struggling with a rapidly growing debt burden, now confront a record global downturn, plummeting prices for their oil and commodities exports and weakening local currencies.
"This is a world where defaults by developing nations on their debt is inevitable," Richard Kozul-Wright, director of UNCTAD's Division on Globalisation and Development Strategies, said.
Debt service obligations
Some 64 low-income countries are already spending more on debt service than their health systems, UNCTAD said in a report calling for a global plan to relieve the burden of debt servicing for poor countries which will need to boost spending on their healthcare systems and economic stimulus
High-income developing countries have debt service obligations of between $2 to $2.3 trillion in 2020 and 2021 alone.
Middle and low-income countries have debt service obligations of $700 billion to $1.1 trillion.
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