Business Desk :
Many of the countries walloped by Covid-19 are also facing debt crises now.
So, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), and Global Citizen have called for comprehensive emergency debt relief for the world’s most vulnerable countries to enable them to combat Covid-19.
The global organisations teamed up to publish an open letter on July 16.
The letter – on behalf of businesses, workers and civil society globally – is addressed to the Group of 20 (G20) – the world’s major economies.
In the letter, the organisations called on the G20 finance ministers to suspend debt service for the world’s most vulnerable countries.
Sovereign debt is credit – usually in the form of bonds or syndicated loans – that a government owes to its creditors.
The letter called on the finance ministers of these countries to build on previous efforts to deliver a truly comprehensive sovereign debt package.
It came ahead of an online meeting of G20 finance ministers – the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting hold on Saturday.
Also, the letter followed a previous joint letter sent in April, which called on the G20 governments to “take the international debt out of the equation in the fight against Covid-19,” ahead of the Spring Meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Earlier, in April, the G20 and the Paris Club of creditors “announced a freeze in debt service payments for the world’s 73 poorest countries, through to the end of 2020.”
