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The silent debt crisis that threatens a lost decade
Poor countries paying more for debt service than health and education for years on end are a disaster in the making. The repercussions can spill across borders.
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The World Bank estimates over half of low-income countries eligible for concessional loans are already in debt-distress.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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High on the agenda of the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank earlier in April was the issue of developing country debt, which has become a long-festering problem. But it looks like not much will change.
Ever since the Covid-19 pandemic, a silent debt crisis has been rippling through the developing world, triggered by collapsing export revenues, domestic mismanagement and after 2022, the rise of US dollar interest rates.
