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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
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.
