The poorest economies already had high debt levels before Covid-19 struck, forcing them to borrow more to shore up their economies during months-long lockdowns.
Add in the war in Ukraine, which drove up global food and fuel prices, and the higher interest rates imposed by international banks to combat rising inflation, and they face a combustible mix.
“It means that countries are much less able to refinance their debt or to borrow for infrastructure projects or climate change projects,” Clemence Landers, a senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development, told AFP.
