Poor Countries Face a Debt Crisis ‘Unlike Anything We Have Seen’

Poor Countries Face a Debt Crisis ‘Unlike Anything We Have Seen’

Dozens of countries that borrowed from private investors have debt payments coming due as their economies have crashed because of the coronavirus.. The low interest rates of the past decade led to an unlikely alliance between poor countries and international investors.. Developing countries owe record amounts of money to investors, governments and others outside their borders: $2.1 trillion for countries ranked as "low income" and "lower-middle income" by the World Bank, including Afghanistan, Chad, Bolivia and Zimbabwe.. Poor countries have long been able to borrow from institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, or from the governments of their trading partners, like China .. Private investors have bought up more debt than official lenders in Latin American, East Asian and emerging European countries.. The International Monetary Fund has already expanded two emergency loan programs, and more than 100 countries have applied.. During La Década Perdida, the debt that was crushing Latin America mainly involved loans from groups of banks, which spent years restructuring the loans, while the I.M.F. pushed to reduce government waste and inefficiency and make the local economies more productive.. There are institutions like the World Bank, individual governments that have lent money - often