The debt standstill offer is open to the world’s poorest and least-developed countries, as defined by the World Bank and the United Nations, as long as they are current in their debt service payments to the World Bank and the IMF. The charity group and others have called for cancellation - not just suspension - of poor countries’ debts in 2020. Georgieva welcomed the G20’s “exceptionally rapid” decision to move ahead on debt relief. That is critical since countries had been reluctant to offer debt relief if countries could use the freed funds to service private-sector debts. Eric LeCompte, executive director at the non-profit Jubilee USA Network, estimated the agreement could ultimately result in $25 billion of relief for the poorest countries.

Source: Dhaka Tribune April 16, 2020 02:37 UTC