A punishing series of economic shocks over the past three years drove 165 million people into poverty worldwide and left debt-swamped developing nations unable to afford adequate schooling, medicine and other social services, according to a report from the United Nations Development Program.
Some of the worlds poorest countries borrowed heavily since 2020 to cope with the pandemic, soaring food and fuel bills caused by the war in Ukraine, the fastest inflation in four decades and higher interest rates.
Now, dozens of governments most in Africa and the Middle East are spending more than twice as much of their revenue repaying debt as they do on social programs. About 3.3 billion people live in countries that spend more on interest …
Read the full article at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/07/14/poverty-global-economy-debt-un/