Debt burdens threaten progress in cutting absolute poverty

The incoming head of the World Bank, Ajay Banga, has spoken out about the extent to which the debt burdens of developing economies impinge upon their developmental prospects. He argues that unless there is meaningful debt relief, many countries are simply going to be unable to tackle poverty or the challenges of climate change.

And the statistics are genuinely shocking: according to Debt Serivce Watch "Debt service was absorbing 54% of budget revenue and 40% of public spending in Africa, the report said. Spread across all continents, 35 countries were paying more than half of their revenue servicing their debts, and 54 over one-third", to the extent that they think the current situation might be even worse than in the late 1990s or prior to the multilateral debt relief initiative of 2005.

Please read: Severe debt burdens thwarting progress on climate and poverty, says World Bank (The Guardian)