UN official issues debt distress alarm

DOHA

A top U.N. official has warned that “urgent” measures are needed to help 52 countries facing debt repayment problems that put some at risk of default.

Achim Steiner, head of the United Nations Development Program, told AFP that 25 of the 52 were spending more than a fifth of government revenues servicing external debt.

“The situation right now for developing countries when it comes to national debt is indeed very, very serious,” Steiner said in an interview on the sidelines of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) summit in Doha.

The U.N. agency estimates that “52 countries are either in debt distress or one step away from debt distress and potential default,” he said.

Steiner did not name the countries involved but the UNDP last week released a report which called for a 30 percent write-off of external debt for 52 countries at 2021 values.

The 52 included Argentina, Lebanon and Ukraine alongside 23 countries from sub-Saharan Africa, 10 from Latin America and the Caribbean, and eight from East Asia and the Pacific.

Steiner said “the financial markets are not paying enough attention” as the 52 account for only 3 percent of global external debt, but one sixth of the world’s population.

Twenty-five countries spending one fifth of government revenues on debt servicing is “not sustainable”, he added.

“Therefore, we have called very clearly for urgent ways to inject liquidity while also restructuring and rescheduling debts, because otherwise we may see country after country falling into that territory of debt distress.”

On March 4, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres slammed the world’s rich countries and energy giants for burdening LDCs with “predatory” interest rates.

Poor nations’ debt has multiplied over the past decade because of the coronavirus pandemic, high food and fuel bills and financial crises.

Several have defaulted over the past two years.