debt

Nearly two out of every five families in Yemen buy food and medicines using debt, according to Oxfam research published today. 

The richest 1 percent have more wealth than the bottom 95 percent of the world’s population put together, new Oxfam analysis of UBS data reveals today ahead of the annual UN High-Level General Debate. 

Multilateral efforts are failing to adequately respond to critical global challenges, including the climate crisis and persistent poverty and inequality. While some have blamed the deadlock solely on rising geopolitical tensions between powerful countries, such a focus is incomplete. Rather, a key reason for failures of international cooperation is extreme economic inequality. Today, the world’s richest 1% own more wealth than 95% of humanity.

Rich countries have again effectively short-changed low- and middle-income countries as part of international climate change negotiations by as much as $88 billion in 2022, the latest year of newly reported figures, says Oxfam.

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.

Income inequality is high or increasing in 60 percent (64 out of 106) of low- and middle-income countries receiving grants or loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, reveals new Oxfam analysis ahead of the 2024 Spring Meetings in Washington D.C. Countries with high levels of income inequality have Gini coefficients above 0.4, the warning level set by the United Nations.

Oxfam welcomes the work of the Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable (GSDR) to build consensus on a set of rules to expedite debt restructuring exercises. This note lays out Oxfam’s views on the GSDR’s agenda, in response to the latest GSDR’s progress report of October 2023. 

As global greenhouse emissions continue to rise, and climate change wreaks more havoc upon the people and places least responsible for the problem, rich polluting countries are now three years overdue on their promise to mobilize $100 billion a year in climate finance for low- and middle-income countries.

Max Lawson, Oxfam International's Head of Inequality Policy at Oxfam, said: "The G7 had failed the Global South here in Hiroshima.  They failed to cancel debts, and they failed to find what is really required to end the huge increase in hunger worldwide. They can find untold billions to fight the war but can’t even provide half of what is needed by the UN for the most critical humanitarian crises."

In response to the publication today of the World Economic Outlook by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Nabil Abdo, Oxfam International’s senior policy advisor on international financial institutions, said: “The IMF is now saying that fiscal consolidation during economic crisis —like today’s economic maelstrom— hasn't served its primary purpose of reducing debt. It’s positive that the IMF is finally admitting this painfully evident fact, but it’s hugely frustrating that it continues to push austerity measures on poor borrowing countries facing huge economic challenges."