Wednesday, October 14, 2020

G20 to extend debt freeze for poorest nations, still wrangling over next steps

Reuters reports that the G20 economies are "poised to extend a multi-billion-dollar debt freeze for the world's poorest countries to help them weather the coronavirus crisis, and may adopt a common approach to dealing with longer-term debt restructurings." They are expected to finalize wording today, after "intense" discussions.

"China, Turkey and India had balked at language that would lock them into future debt writeoffs.

"Beijing, the largest new creditor for emerging market economies, objected to adoption of a common framework for dealing with debt concerns beyond the G20 debt moratorium ... "The fight is far from over," the source added."

... 

"The absence of private creditors also remains a problem, as does the failure of China to fully participate with all its state-owned institutions."

To repeat the summary from The Guardian,

"Debt relief is no longer simply a question of getting a bunch of rich western governments to agree to a deal: it now requires the involvement of private sector creditors, such as BlackRock, and Beijing."

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