The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (BM) have publicly called on international organizations and private creditors to freeze the collection of their debts to the poorest countries and to help them have more cash to fight the pandemic. Covid-19 coronavirus. The call aims to favor a group of 75 countries where two thirds of the world's population are concentrated in extreme poverty.

"The World Bank Group and the IMF believe it is imperative at this moment to provide a global sense of relief for developing countries as well as a strong signal to financial markets," declared these two institutions in a joint statement estimating that this respite would make it possible to analyze the situation and the needs of each country.

The demand targets countries that are eligible for loans from the International Development Association (IDA), which operates on the orbit of the World Bank. These are countries whose per capita income is below 1.175 dollars or which, even above this threshold, do not have the credit capacity to receive loans from the World Bank. Most of them belong to the African continent or to the island Asia region. In the Caribbean and Latin America, only Haiti is concerned, Nicaragua, Honduras and Guyana, as well as the independent Caribbean islands: Dominica, Saint Vincent, Grenada and Saint Lucia.

Note that initially this suggestion was made by the President of the World Bank, David Malpass, to the G20 countries and was then extended to all bilateral creditors. Likewise, the two organizations have offered to carry out an assessment of this group of countries in order to draw up a list of those who have unsustainable debt and to work on restructuring their commitments.

SL/ HaitiLibre