debt crisis

Oxfam welcomes the G20’s attention to the sovereign debt crisis in the Global South, but warns about the risks involved in the G20’s approach to resolve it, outlined in more details in the IMF and World Bank Non-Paper on Actions to Support Countries Faced With Liquidity Challenges.  

We strongly support the approach’s aim to significantly increase the net flow of resources to the Global South to back ambitious, country-owned national development and climate strategies. We urge the G20 to adopt several elements of the plan, including increasing bilateral grants, reviewing relevant IMF policies, increasing IMF and multilateral development banks’ resources including but not limited to a generous IDA21 replenishment, and redoubling efforts to promote effective and equitable domestic resources mobilization.

With funds equivalent to just 2.9 percent ($35.7 billion) of their combined annual military spending, Group of Seven (G7) countries could help end world hunger and solve the debt crisis in the Global South, reveals new Oxfam analysis ahead of the G7 Summit in Borgo Egnazia, Italy.

In response to the outcome of COP28, Oxfam International’s Climate Change Policy Lead Nafkote Dabi said:

“Everyone fighting against the global climate crisis has little to celebrate from this disappointing COP28. Its final outcome is grossly inadequate. Oil, coal and gas won again, but they had to struggle harder to do so and their era is nearing its end." 
 

G20 world leaders have failed to take definitive action to tackle poverty, hunger, climate, debt and deprivation that is crippling millions of people around the world, says Oxfam.

Many rich countries are using dishonest and misleading accounting to inflate their climate finance contributions to developing countries – in 2020 by as much as 225 percent, according to investigations by Oxfam.

“Today’s lack of progress on debt relief is as irresponsible as it is underwhelming. Merely encouraging private sector creditors and multilateral banks to participate in the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) is woefully inadequate and a dereliction of duty. The G20 is in denial of the scale of response needed to address the worse global crisis in a century," said Jaime Atienza, Oxfam International’s Debt Policy Lead, in response to the communiqué of the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting.

The coronavirus pandemic is fast pushing developing countries toward a debt crisis that would be catastrophic for their fight against poverty, with the likelihood of multi-billion-dollar defaults that will hurt the entire global economy, warned Oxfam ahead of the G20 Finance Ministers’ meeting this weekend (July 18-19).