"It's a challenge in the sense that for many, debt service has grown, borrowing has become more expensive, and external sources [have become] less certain," said Christian Libralato, portfolio manager with RBC BlueBay. The US Treasury's top economic diplomat has called for new ways to provide short-term liquidity support to low- and middle-income countries to head off debt crises. Advertisement"Countries are avoiding... education, health and infrastructure expenditures to service their debt," Songwe said. Fresh funding from the IMF, the World Bank, and other multilaterals failed to compensate for the rising costs, he said. The World Bank aims to boost lending capacity by $30 billion over 10 years.

Source: Manila Times October 21, 2024 22:17 UTC