World Bank sees ‘huge willingness’ to Suspend Debt Payments for Poorest Countries

The World Bank is seeing “a huge willingness” on the a part of official bilateral creditors to suspend debt payments by the world’s poorest countries in order that they can specialise in fighting the coronavirus pandemic, a top Bank official said on Monday.

World Bank director Axel van Trotsenburg said the Group of 20 major economies and therefore the Group of Seven (G7) had been largely supportive of a call by the planet Bank and International fund for a short lived halt in debt payments.

“Everybody understands that we need to help the poorest countries. There is an enormous willingness – as in nobody is questioning that, absolutely nobody,” he told Reuters in an interview. “I think we are in a good place to move forward.”

Finance officials from the G7 and G20 countries are thanks to discuss the debt relief issue in the week . Three sources conversant in the method said details were still being finalized, but they expected the G20 countries to back a suspension of debt payments a minimum of until the end of the year.

World Bank President David Malpass said last week he expected a “broad endorsement” of the proposal by the 25-member joint Development Committee of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and IMF on Friday.

The World Bank and the IMF have begun disbursing emergency aid to countries struggling to contain the virus and mitigate its economic impact. They first issued their involve debt relief on Annunciation , but China – a serious creditor – and other G20 nations haven’t formally endorsed the proposal.

The IMF announced on Monday a primary round of debt relief grants to 25 of its poorest member countries, including Afghanistan, Mali, Haiti and Yemen.

The funds will cover those countries’ debt service payments to the Fund for subsequent six months, but the IMF is pushing donor countries to quite double the $500 million available in its Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust so it can extend the debt relief for a full two years.

The IMF-World Bank push for broader bilateral debt relief won significant backing over the past week, including from Pope Francis and therefore the Institute of International Finance (IIF), which represents over 450 global banks, hedge funds and sovereign wealth funds.

The two institutions are urging China and other big creditors to suspend debt payments from May Day for International Development Association (IDA) countries that are home to 1 / 4 of the world’s population and two-thirds of the world’s population living in extreme poverty.

With a combined gross domestic product of around $2 trillion, those countries face official bilateral debt service obligations of $14 billion through the top of 2020, the planet Bank estimates.

The World Bank has already approved $2.1 billion in emergency funding for 32 countries to reply to the COVID-19 crisis, with decisions on 40 more expected this month.

Van Trotsenburg said it had been crucial that commercial creditors also provide debt relief for the poorest countries, which have also seen massive outflows of capital and a pointy drop-off in remittances by citizens living overseas.

“This is a global problem affecting everybody. Unless everybody acts, it’ll not add up,” van Trotsenburg said. “That means every institution has the obligation to see what can it mobilize to the best of its ability, and to be fast.”

IIF President Tim Adams said official bilateral debt relief might be provided relatively quickly but that it might take longer to supply commercial debt relief given the shortage of details and oversight about who exactly holds all the debt.

Van Trotsenburg said it had been also important to make sure that unsustainable debt levels not impede the poorest countries’ movement toward more sustainable development, when asked about the necessity for a broader round of debt restructuring.

Adams said that discussion was premature, with circumstances and needs varying widely from country to country. But he said the crisis highlighted the necessity for greater transparency about lending to poor countries by China et al. .