- The G7 states have agreed to postpone the payment of foreign debt to the 76 poorest countries in the world for use in the coronavirus crisis. In total, EUR 18 billion has been deferred. The G20 countries have also accepted the deferral, and it is expected that the payment period will need to be further extended.
USA, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Canada and Japan agreed on 14 April last to postpone the foreign debt of the poorest countries in the world. The approval of the G20 has come two days later, after many doubts that have arisen on the go. In fact, some of the G20 states, like China or Saudi Arabia, are some of the biggest lenders in those poor countries.
China has been one of the countries that has opposed the adoption of such an agreement, despite the fact that it has already done such treatment. But pressure from the IMF and the World Bank and the decision of the G7 countries have led the Asian state to accept the decision.
Poorer than poorer
40 African and several Caribbean and Asian states complete the list of countries to which external debt has been written off. In these states, one quarter of the world ' s population lives and two thirds of them live in poverty. In addition, the coronavirus crisis has further weakened weak economies in fact.
This period of payment of the debt will therefore serve to deal as much as possible with the poor economic situation of these countries. In any case, the claim of many years has been not only to defer the payment of the debt, but also to forgive it. The Strategic Centre for Geopolitics of Latin America (CELAG), for example, has launched a collection of signatures with the support of different agents and former Presidents of the left.