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25 Feb 21
The world’s richest countries borrowed a record $18trn from the markets in 2020, an OECD report into Covid-19’s effect on debt has found.
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19 Feb 21
Covid-19 led public debt to a record high in 2020, as governments borrowed three times as much as they did the previous year while trying to fight the virus.
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5 Feb 21
Covid-19 has led Ethiopia seeking relief on its large public debts as it tries to make fiscal space to deal with the crisis.
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10 Dec 20
High debt among Chinese local governments poses a “key risk” during the country’s recovery from Covid-19, ratings agency Fitch has said, although the outlook for the sector remains stable.
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20 Nov 20
Germany should not let its rising debt stop it from taking “vigorous policy action” to mitigate the economic effects of Covid-19, the IMF has said after a visit to the country.
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13 Oct 20
The world’s poorest countries were at risk of debt crises even before Covid-19, with their debts climbing to the highest ever levels in 2019.
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9 Oct 20
Richer countries need to increase public investment to revive the global economy from its worst crash in recent times, the IMF has said.
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29 Sep 20
The economic and health crises caused by Covid-19 led Germany’s overall public debt to its highest ever level in the first half of 2020, the country’s official statistics bureau Destatis has...
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28 Sep 20
The IMF has lent $90bn since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic – about one-third of its current total lending commitments.
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23 Sep 20
Zambia has asked to suspend debt service payments for six months to allow it to deal with the Covid-19 hit to its public finances.
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22 Sep 20
Developing economies have some breathing space to deal with Covid-19 thanks to intervention by global financial institutions. But will piling up debt make recovery prospects even more precarious?
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17 Jul 20
Some coronavirus loans from the IMF are effectively being used to pay back loans from private lenders, without any of the money being used by the countries themselves to respond to the pandemic, a...
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20 May 20
Huge fiscal responses to the Covid-19 pandemic are being announced around the world, not least in Asia. Civil servant in Pakistan Muhammad Afnan Alam details the situation and how it might impact the...
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9 Apr 20
Public sector lenders should take the lead in pioneering innovative loan contracts that allow borrowers to better respond to crises like the coronavirus, argues international development and...
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18 Mar 20
Chad is paying back a $100m loan from Angola with thousands of cattle, the Angolan state-run newspaper has reported.
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9 Jan 20
Burdensome debts are forcing poor countries to cut public spending - a situation campaigners have described as a “recipe for disaster”.
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20 Dec 19
Poor countries’ debt reached a record $55trn in 2018, after the fastest surge in nearly 50 years, a World Bank study has found.
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5 Dec 19
Infrastructure investment in New Zealand is being brought forward to “take advantage” of good public finances and make up for the previous government’s “neglect”, the finance minister has said.
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24 Oct 19
Struggling South African power company Eskom has been given an additional 59bn rand (£3.1bn) by the country’s government to help service its debt and stop power cuts.
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23 Oct 19
Somalia is progressing with economic reforms and hopes to have its debts wiped soon, the country’s finance minister has said.
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17 Oct 19
Africa has seen a huge rise in debt, which needs to yield a return for the citizens who will be paying it back, says the ONE Campaign’s Fiona Robertson.
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11 Oct 19
The Jubilee Debt Campaign has accused the IMF of acting against its own policies and incentivising reckless lending.
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4 Oct 19
World Bank data has shown foreign debt burden on developing countries rose to $7.8tn in 2018, causing concern over governments’ sustainability and their future ability to invest in development.
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13 Aug 19
Public debt in Ireland rose to €206bn in 2018 - 104% of gross national income and among the largest of OECD member countries.
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5 Aug 19
Africa’s poorest countries made little progress on improving the frameworks necessary to promote poverty reduction and sustainable growth in 2018, the World Bank has found.