Official statements (by IFIs, multilateral forums, governments or officials)
| Date | Title (linked) | Institution / Author | Comments / Related issues |
| 15 April 2020 | Communiqué – G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting 15 April 2020 | G20 | G20 announcement on suspension of debt service payments |
| 13 April 2020 | IMF Executive Board Approves Immediate Debt Relief for 25 | IMF | Executive Board approved immediate debt service relief to 25 of the IMF’s member countries under the IMF’s revamped Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (CCRT) … This provides grants to our poorest and most vulnerable members to cover their IMF debt obligations for an initial phase over the next six months |
| 12 April 2020 | Coronavirus: Pope Francis calls for debt relief and end to sanctions | Euronews | See also Duncan Green’s “The Pope just backed a Universal Basic Income and a lot of other stuff” |
| 9 April 2020 | IMF Executive Board Approves Proposals to Enhance the Fund’s Emergency Financing Toolkit to US$100 Billion | IMF | “As we are responding to this unprecedented number of calls for emergency financing—from over 90 countries so far—doubling access to our emergency facilities will help us to meet the expected demand of about US$100 billion in financing and provide stronger support to our member countries in addressing the COVID-19 crisis” Enhancing the Emergency Financing Toolkit—Responding To The COVID-19 Pandemic Streamlining Procedures for Board Consideration of The Fund’s Emergency Financing During Exceptional Circumstances Involving A Pandemic |
| 7 April 2020 | Debt relief for the poorest countries critical in fight against COVID-19 | UNICEF | statement by UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore |
| 2 April 2020 | World Bank Group Launches First Operations for COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Emergency Health Support, Strengthening Developing Country Responses | World Bank | World Bank Group’s Operational Response to COVID-19 (coronavirus) – Projects List “The first group of projects, amounting to $1.9 billion, will assist 25 countries, and new operations are moving forward in over 40 countries using the fast-track process.” |
| 2 April 2020 | Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust : Policy Proposals and Funding Strategy | IMF | |
| 1 April 2020 | Transcript of Background Briefing Conference Call on IMF Resources and the Fund’s Strategy to Help Countries Combat COVID-19 | IMF | |
| 30 March 2020 | UN calls for $2.5 trillion coronavirus crisis package for developing countries | UNCTAD | The package includes $1 trillion should be made available through the expanded use of special drawing rights $1 trillion of debts owed by developing countries should be cancelled this year $500 billion needed to fund a Marshall Plan for health recovery and dispersed as grants Based on the report: The Covid-19 Shock to Developing Countries: Towards a “whatever it takes” programme for the two-thirds of the world’s population being left behind |
| 26 March 2020 | Extraordinary G20 Leaders’ Summit Statement on COVID-19 | G20 | We will continue to address risks of debt vulnerabilities in low-income countries due to the pandemic |
| 25 March 2020 | Joint Statement from the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund Regarding A Call to Action on the Debt of IDA Countries | IMF and World Bank Group | Call on all official bilateral creditors to suspend debt payments from IDA countries that request forbearance |
| 24 March 2020 | Letter from the Secretary-General to G-20 Members | UN Secretary General | Debt restructuring must also become a priority — including immediate waivers on interest payments for 2020. Financial support to the IMF CCRT is another critical venue to help the poorest countries with immediate debt relief |
| 23 March 2020 | Remarks by World Bank Group President David Malpass on G20 Finance Ministers Conference Call on COVID-19 | David Malpass, WBG president | – urge all official bilateral creditors to act with immediate effect to help IDA countries through debt relief – Countries will need to implement structural reforms |
| 23 March 2020 | African Finance Ministers call for coordinated COVID-19 response to mitigate adverse impact on economies and society | UNECA | African finance ministers request: – immediate emergency economic stimulus to the tune of US$100 billion. – waiver of all interest payments to public creditors and sovereign bonds, estimated at US$44 billion for 2020, & possible extension to medium term, – Interest and principal waiver for fragile states. |
| 20 March 2020 | “An immediate human rights response to counter the COVID-19 and the global recession ahead is an urgent priority” | Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky, UN Independent Expert on the effects of foreign debt and human rights | Focusing also on household debt |
Official analysis and resources (by IFIs, multilateral forums, governments or officials)
| Date | Title (linked) | Institution / Author | Comments / Related issues |
| 23 April 2020 | From the Great Lockdown to the Great Meltdown: Developing Country Debt in the Time of Covid-19 | UNCTAD | Of utmost importance, in responding to both the Covid-19 shock to developing country sovereign external debt positions as well as to the fragility of such positions even prior to the Covid-19 shock is coordinated debtor country action to pro-actively shape future international agendas and agreements on developing country debt relief and restructurings. These have long failed to address the need for comprehensive, substantive and game-changing ways forward to deal fairly and efficiently with heavy and growing public debt service burdens across developing countries, precipitated by speculative and volatile international net portfolio capital flows from developed countries. |
| 7 April 2020 | COVID-19 causes devastating losses in working hours and employment | ILO | Updated impacts on job losses by ILO -> The COVID-19 crisis is expected to wipe out 6.7 per cent of working hours globally in the second quarter of 2020 – equivalent to 195 million full-time workers. Large reductions are foreseen in the Arab States (8.1 per cent, equivalent to 5 million full-time workers), Europe (7.8 per cent, or 12 million full-time workers) and Asia and the Pacific (7.2 per cent, 125 million full-time workers). The proportion of workers in these “at risk” sectors varies from 43 per cent in the Americas to 26 per cent in Africa. Some regions, particularly Africa, have higher levels of informality, which combined with a lack of social protection, high population density and weak capacity, pose severe health and economic challenges for governments, the report cautions. Worldwide, two billion people work in the informal sector (mostly in emerging and developing economies) and are particularly at risk. |
| 30 March 2020 | The Covid-19 Shock to Developing Countries: Towards a “whatever it takes” programme for the two-thirds of the world’s population being left behind | UNCTAD | Includes calculations on how much debt relief is needed according to UNCTAD ($1 trillion) |
| 27 March 2020 | IMF Enhances Debt Relief Trust to Enable Support for Eligible Low-Income Countries in the Wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic | IMF | Enhancement to the IMF Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (CCRT) to enable the Fund to provide debt service relief -> expand the qualification criteria + fund raising for replenishment up to $1bn |
| 25 March 2020 | In It Together: Protecting the Health of Africa’s People and their Economies | IMF Blog | Policy responses to tackle the health and economic crisis in Africa, including debt relief |
| 24 March 2020 | Policy Responses to COVID19 | IMF | Compilation of official bilateral responses, fiscal packages, etc. |
| Ongoing | IMF and COVID19 | IMF | Includes a regional series: AFR: In It Together: Protecting the Health of Africa’s People and their Economies LAC: COVID-19 Pandemic and Latin America and the Caribbean: Time for Strong Policy Actions ME&CA: COVID-19 Pandemic and the Middle East and Central Asia: Region Facing Dual Shock |
| Ongoing | World Bank and COVID19 | World Bank | Includes: World Bank Group Increases COVID-19 Response to $14 Billion To Help Sustain Economies, Protect Jobs (IFC package focusing on private sector) |
| Ongoing | Coronavirus (COVID-19) : News, Analysis and Resources by UNCTAD | UNCTAD | Includes: The coronavirus shock: a story of another global crisis foretold (interesting policy recommendations including debt moratorium) |
| Ongoing | Tackling coronavirus (COVID-19) Contributing to a global effort | OECD | Economic impact estimates and policy responses by OECD countries |
| Ongoing | We will help the world rise stronger after COVID-19 | UN DESA | Compilation of videos and resources by UN DESA |
| Ongoing | Q&A: COVID-19 pandemic – impact on food and agriculture | FAO | There is also a list of analysis and highlights |
| 18 March 2020 | COVID-19 and the world of work: Impact and policy responses | ILO | ILO’s preliminary assessment concerning the possible impacts on the world of work and policy options to mitigate these impacts |
IMF disbursements linked to COVID19
Civil society statements
Civil society analysis and resources
| Date | Title (linked) | Institution / Author | Comments / Related issues |
| 19 April 2020 | Save Lives, Cancel The Debt Now! | APMDD | Video: The IMF, the G7 and G20 have announced relief measures, such as the short-term suspension of payments for a limited group of countries. But the exceptional situation calls for far more ambitious decisions. |
| 16 April 2020 | Six things you should know about Covid-19 and debt for developing countries | Eurodad | This blog provides a guide to understanding the key issues for developing countries. |
| 7 April 2020 | Fighting COVID-19: Why and How to Suspend Debt Repayment Immediately | CADTM, Eric Toussaint | In spanish here |
| 6 April 2020 | What is the role of ODA in tackling the corona crisis? | Jan Van de Poel, Eurodad | |
| 30 March 2020 | Latin America and the outbreak of COVID-19: a chronicle of multiple crises (Part 1 & Part 2) | Maria José Romero, Eurodad | Spanish: América Latina y la epidemia de COVID-19: una crónica de múltiples crisis (Part 1 & Part 2) |
| 30 March 2020 | How to confront the coronavirus catastrophe. The Global Public Health Plan andEmergency Response needed now | Oxfam briefing | See summary here |
| Ongoing | Tracking Covid-19 financing at Development Banks | Coalition for Human Rights in Development | “We have tracked commitments of over USD 58 billion for emergency Covid-19 response by multilateral development banks in the last month, and especially in the last couple of weeks. The banks also appear to be coordinating their responses”. |
| 27 March 2020 | COVID-19 is hitting Caribbean and Latin American economies hard. Can they survive? | Eric LeCompte (Jubilee USA), Miami Herald | |
| 27 March 2020 | Time for a Rights-Based Global Economic Stimulus to Tackle COVID-19 | Ignacio Saiz, CERS | Calls for the extension of debt moratorium to all low and middle income countries |
| 26 March 2020 | G20: offer debt relief to fight coronavirus | AVAAZ | Online signatures collection |
| 26 March 2020 | Why Debt Relief should be part of the Covid Response | Duncan Green, Oxfam | |
| 24 March 2020 | Eurodad cost assessment of a debt moratorium to tackle the COVID-19 crisis | Daniel Munevar, Eurodad | Costs and implications of an immediate debt moratorium for 69 LIEs |
| 23-26 March 2020 | COVID-19 and debt in the global south: Protecting the most vulnerable in times of crisis: Part I + Part II + Part III + Part IV | Daniel Munevar, Eurodad | blog series covering the impact of COVID-19 on vulnerable countries in the global south. Part 1 analyses the impact of debt burdens on health services. Part 2 discusses how the economic crisis will affect countires in the global south. Part 3 highlights the degree of vulnerability of countries in the global south to the COVID-19 pandemic. Part 4 provides a discussion on policy responses to tackle the risks posed by the pandemic. |
| 23-27 March 2020 | Uganda braced to overcome covid- 19 pandemonium | Uganda Debt Network |
Articles and other resources
| Date | Title (linked) | Institution / Author | Comments / Related issues |
| 1 May 2020 | People in the Global South don’t need debt relief, they need a new system | Open Democracy/ Meera Karunananthan | Far from being the ‘great leveller’, COVID-19 has exposed and deepened socio-economic inequalities. |
| 19 April 2020 | Creditors push back on G20 debt relief plea for emerging markets | FT | |
| 19 April 2020 | Debt Relief for Poor Nations Not an Easy Sell to Bondholders | Bloomberg | |
| 17 April 2020 | BBC World Business Report | BBC | |
| 17 April 2020 | IMF, World Bank Pledge Help Amid Calls for More Debt Relief | Associated Press – NYTimes | |
| 17 April 2020 | Chinese Debt Relief: Fact and Fiction | Deborah Brautigam, The diplomat | |
| 15 April 2020 | Coronavirus: G20 delays poor nations’ debt payments | BBC | |
| 14 April | Coronavirus – Why Nigeria Deserves Debt Pardon From IMF, World Bank – NLC | Bassey Udo | |
| 12 April 2020 | Pressure grows for developing world debt relief over coronavirus | The Guardian | |
| Ongoing | Official sector financial interventions globally | Yale School of Management | Includes: Financial-Intervention Tracker (interventions by central banks, fiscal authorities, and international organizations); Analyses of Specific Intervention Types; Blog Posts; and Preliminary Discussion Drafts |
| 7 April 2020 | Internationalizing the Crisis World must combat looming debt meltdown in developing countries | Joseph Stiglitz, Project Syndicate The Guardian | |
| 7 April 2020 | Senior Africans propose ‘standstill’ on eurobond debt payments | David Pilling, FT | Prominent Africans pressing for a two-year moratorium on $115bn of sovereign African debt owned by the private sector in what, under normal circumstances, would be considered a default. |
| 6 April 2020 | April 2020 Global Debt Monitor: COVID-19 Lights a Fuse | IIF | With the COVID-19 fiscal response in full swing, the global debt burden is set to rise dramatically in 2020; gross government debt issuance soared to a record high of over $2.1 trillion last month, more than double the 2017-19 average of $0.9 trillion. As social distancing becomes the norm across most mature economies, global recession looms: a recession which would begin with $87 trillion more in global debt than at the onset of the 2008 financial crisis. Using a simple top-down estimation, if net government borrowing doubles from 2019 levels—and there is a 3% contraction in global economic activity (nominal terms)—the world’s debt pile would surge from 322% of GDP to over 342% this year. |
| 6 April 2020 | La Covid-19 en el mundo más pobre | Jaime Atienza (Oxfam) and José Antonio Alonso | In spanish |
| 5th April 2020 | Abolish Africa’s Sovereign Debtors’ Prisons Now | Ndongo Samba Sylla and Peter Doyle | On IMF structural adjustment |
| 4 April 2020 | Debt Moratoria in the Global South in the Age of Coronavirus | Christina Laskaridis | |
| 3 April 2020 | Abolish illegitimate and odious claims by European countries from third parties and give absolute priority to human rights | ReCommons Europe (CADTM et al) | Recommendations in order to cancel the illegitimate and odious debts claimed from third countries and thus promote sovereign, solidarity-based and self-centred forms of development of the countries of the South, for the governments of European countries |
| 29 March 2020 | Officials warn Africa is at ‘break the glass’ moment | David Pilling, Financial Times | “Abebe Selassie, director of IMF’s Africa department, said the continent faced its deepest economic challenge in several generations. Bilateral lenders should consider immediate debt relief, he said, while the IMF would waive debt payments for the poorest countries.” |
| 26 March 2020 | From coronavirus crisis to sovereign debt crisis | Lee Buchheit and Sean Hagan, Financial Times | Conclusion:“If a suspension of some sovereign debt payments becomes unavoidable in the coming months, the goal should be to ensure that this does not precipitate a destructive debt crisis for the afflicted countries. Corporate borrowers may seek such a standstill protection from a bankruptcy court; sovereign debtors must look elsewhere. Securing an effective standstill will also be critical to achieving inter-creditor equity. The IMF and World Bank earlier this week requested all official bilateral creditors to exercise forbearance with respect to amounts due to them. It will be difficult for official sector creditors to justify this forbearance to their taxpayers if the money is simply paid over to more importunate commercial lenders”. |
| 25 March 2020 | Western governments told to suspend debt interest amid Covid-19 | Richard Partington, The guardian | On WB and IMF statement – JDC quoted |
| 25 March 2020 | La gestion calamiteuse du coronavirus par la Banque mondiale et le FMI | Renaud Vivien, La Libre | On links between structural adjustment, austerity, debt and health crisis – In spanish here |
| 24 March 2020 | How debt burdens could cripple Africa’s COVID-19 response | David Archer, DEVEX | “The coronavirus pandemic should be a wake-up call to IMF to withdraw damaging policies that continue to promote austerity and fail to build strong and fair tax systems” |
| 24 March 2020 | 5 Principles on the Uses and Misuses of Debt Relief to Address the Coronavirus Pandemic | Scott Morris, CDG | On the risks of debt relief to tackle the covid19 pandemic |
| 27 March 2020 | The answer to pandemics? strong public health systems | Wemos | |
| 23 March 2020 | Fighting Coronavirus: It’s Time to Invest in Universal Public Health | Isabel Ortiz and Thomas Stubb | In spanish here On the links between austerity and coronavirus crisis |
| 23-24 March 2020 | ¿Dará Ecuador una vez más un ejemplo de valentía frente a los acreedores? Ecuador Default Odds Surge as Virus Prompts Calls for Moratorium Ecuador se acoge a moratoria de deuda y pide más ayuda al FMI por cononavirus Indígenas le piden al Gobierno de Ecuador suspender el pago de la deuda externa | CADTM Bloomberg INFOBAE EFE | On Ecuador temporary suspension of payments |
| 22 March 2020 | Corona Debt Jubilee | Michel Hudson, published in the Washington Post as “A debt jubilee is the only way to avoid a depression” | “The coronavirus outbreak is serving as a mind-expansion exercise, making hitherto unthinkable solutions thinkable. Debts that can’t be paid won’t be. A debt jubilee may be the best way out.” |
| 19 March 2020 | How to pay for the war | Nelson Barbosa and Richard Kozul-Wrigh (UNCTAD), FT | “The coronavirus economic response should be both swift, and shaped by how we want the economy to look when we emerge from crisis”. |
| 17 March 2020 | PM wants world to consider writing off Pakistan’s debt to help cope with coronavirus | Business Recorder | “The world community has to think of some sort of a debt write off for countries like us which are very vulnerable. At least that will help us in coping with it” |
Civil Society Financing for Development (FfD) MECHANISM 