The erlassjahr.de 2018 Global Sovereign Debt Monitor showed that the global debt crisis has arrived. For more than a year now, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has also been ringing alarm bells. Unlike past debt crises, these alarm signals are not being ignored or denied by representatives of public and private creditors. Rather, it turns out that the civil society assessment of the debt situation of developing and emerging countries is shared among ministries of finance and creditor institutions. Unfortunately, that does not mean that those responsible are taking decisive steps to tackle the crisis.
Author Kristina Rehbein discusses the creditors’ disappointing treatment of the new debt crisis of the Global South in Focus Paper 1.