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NEW YORK, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – May 1, 2020): Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has called for the cancellation, not just the suspension, of debt payments by developing countries to allow them redirect financial resources to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.
In a New York Times op-ed, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning African leader said the recent move by the Group of 20 industrialized nations to suspend debt repayment to the world’s low-income countries until the end of the The year was a step in the right direction, but this initiative had to be even more ambitious.
“At a minimum, the suspension of debt payments should last not only until the end of 2020, but long after the pandemic has ended,” Prime Minister Ahmed wrote.
“It should involve not only the suspension of the debt but also the cancellation of the debt,” he said. “Global creditors must give up official bilateral and commercial debt for low-income countries.”
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was the first to highlight the issue last month when he called on global financial institutions to present a ‘global debt relief initiative’ for developing countries, a move acclaimed by the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres and many countries. .
The Ethiopian Prime Minister, in his opinion piece, said that 64 countries, almost half in sub-Saharan Africa, spent more on servicing external debt last year than on health.
“Immediate and forceful action on the debt will prevent a humanitarian disaster today and will shore up our economy for tomorrow,” Ahmed wrote.
“We need to immediately divert resources from debt service to adequately respond to the pandemic. We need to prevent a temporary health crisis from turning into a chronic financial collapse that could last for years, even decades,” added the Ethiopian prime minister. Everyone’s self-interest is that borrowers are allowed a break to return to relative health. All the benefits of the rehabilitation of the economies of the most affected countries will be shared by all of us, just as the consequences of negligence will harm all of us. “
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