The Global South Must Be Freed of Its Debt Servitude
The G20 has announced it will allow 76 poor countries additional time to pay back their loans. But it’s not an act of benevolence — it’s a desperate maneuver to maintain the global debt peonage that undergirds neoliberal capitalism.
Cambodian and Chinese workers dump garbage outside a construction site in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, on February 16, 2020. Paula Bronstein / Getty
The COVID-19 pandemic, which has infected more than 2 million people worldwide and brought the global economy to a halt, is sending impoverished nations into a tailspin. So last week the G20 agreed to give poor countries a break on their debt repayments.
Starting May 1, seventy-six poor countries (defined as such by qualification for assistance from the World Bank’s International Development Association) who are “current” on their loans to both the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank will be able to suspend bilateral (government-to-government) loan payments for the rest of the year.
The debt relief will give poor countries a little bit of extra cash to spend on containing the virus and dealing with its economic fallout. But like most relief measures enacted during this crisis, the G20’s loan concessions are at best a bare minimum, aimed at containment rather than mitigation.
This article is for subscribers only. Please login or subscribe to access our full archives and beautiful print and digital magazine starting at just $3 a month.