The level of debt distress among emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs) has been a concern even before the COVID-19 pandemic, and there is now a burgeoning consensus that a full-blown debt crisis may loom on the horizon. Even without a widespread crisis, the increasing number of countries who are losing their fiscal space jeopardizes […]
Although Africa has contributed only 3.8 percent of total global emissions, it has borne the brunt of climate change. With a substantial lack of energy access in Sub-Saharan Africa, the continent must balance the need to combat climate change with an urgency to develop the continent’s economies to alleviate hunger and poverty, which are exacerbated […]
In 2021, the Vulnerable Group of Twenty (V20) made a call for debt flexibility, invoking insufficient fiscal resources to finance responses to health and social crises caused by the COVID-19 pandemic as well as urgent investments in climate adaptation. The service of public debt crowds out crucial investments that countries require to climate-proof their economies and establish […]
By Yan Wang and Ying Qian After nearly three years of the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath, the global economy is facing three overlapping crises: 1) the climate crisis, as shown by extreme weather disasters, 2) Russia’s war in Ukraine, which has led to energy and food prices to skyrocket and 3) capital outflows from […]
The Vulnerable Twenty (V20) Group of Finance Ministers, a dedicated initiative of 55 climate vulnerable economies, is at the epicenter of looming debt and climate crises which are threatening their ability to build resilient and low-carbon economies. When scarce public finances are mostly spent on debt service rather than on investments to build a more resilient […]
On August 19, 2022, China announced it would waive 23 interest-free loans (IFLs) with maturity by the end of 2021 for 17 unspecified African countries worth an unspecified total amount. While it is challenging to determine the exact amount of the cancelations due to lack of information, a new policy brief by the Boston University […]
By Bridgette Lang The Spring 2022 Global China Research Colloquium invited leading scholars to virtually present their latest research on topics spanning China’s application of industrial policy, debt-for-nature swaps with Ecuador, simulating the impacts of China’s clean energy transition abroad and mapping the marine risks of Chinese overseas development finance. Zhu Xian started the year […]
Whether or to what degree climate-vulnerable developing countries have fiscal space is a key question confronting the international public finance community today. A new technical paper by Toby Melissa C. Monsod, Mary Anne Majadillas and Maria Socorro Gochoco-Bautista for the Task Force on Climate, Development and the International Monetary Fund studies the availability of fiscal […]
By Ying Qian The COVID-19 pandemic has levied a brutal force on many emerging and low-income countries: not only their public health systems, but their economies have also suffered from severe contractions, which derailed revenue generation and budget execution. The onslaught of the pandemic has exacerbated the triple crisis of public health, rising poverty and […]
The economic shock from the COVID-19 pandemic has set back the development agendas for emerging markets and developing countries. Many developing countries have suffered from severe economic contractions that derailed revenue generation and budget execution and created urgent financing needs. Servicing public debt crowds out fiscal space for investing in a green and equitable recovery […]