This weekend, G20 Finance Ministers passed up the chance to scale up debt relief to developing countries, demonstrating a galling lack of urgency in the face of the debt crisis engulfing a pandemic-stricken globe. Worse still, their approach risks making a bad situation worse.

• Debt suspension offered by G20 only covers 3.65% of all the debt service payments to be made in 2020 by all developing countries
• G20 leaders urged to massively scale up debt relief and work on longer-term global reforms to resolve debt crises or risk abandoning sustainable development and climate goals

Piling on more debt on to the shoulders of developing countries will not help them recover from the Covid-19 crisis, write Isabelle Brachet and Maria Jose Romero.

A new Eurodad report has identified an available IMF mechanism to impose debt standstills: Article VIII, Section 2 (b) of the IMF Articles of Agreement. The article in question allows the IMF to impose a debt standstill through the temporary suspension of enforceability of debt contracts in domestic courts of more than 189 IMF member countries, including the US and the UK.

Read the report in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese.

Argentina continues to struggle with recession and a mounting debt crisis. The country has been on selective default for a few months, and is battling to avoid a broader default.

La crisis de Covid-19 tiene el potencial de devastar el sustento y las vidas de los 1.200 millones de personas en 69 Economías de Bajos Ingresos cubiertos por este informe. 

Evaluación de costos de una moratoria de la deuda para enfrentar la crisis de Covid-19

The G20 agreement is significant and will support the immediate Covid-19 response. But the breathing space it provides countries may be short-lived.