More than 50 countries, composing half of the worlds poorest people, are facing severe debt distress. Crisis might be an overused term in global politics, but surely this qualifies as one.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) serves as the lender of last resort for financially distressed countries its role to lend at reasonable terms when no one else will. The hope is to prevent crises from getting worse, and, along with imposing policy changes, to ultimately help countries sustainably exit economic troubles.
Less well appreciated, however, is that the IMF often imposes significant surcharges well beyond its basic lending rate. These surcharges have long been controversial. But after the twin shocks of Covid-19 and the invasion of Ukra…
Read the full article at: https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/scrapping-imf-surcharges-key-cutting-debt-burden-distressed-nations