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	Developing country debt payments increase by 60% in three years by Jubilee Debt Campaign, agencies   May 2019   Stop the spiralling debt of world’s poorest countries, says new Christian Aid report.   The UK must step up and meet its moral responsibility to avert debt crises in developing countries that are often struggling to recover in the wake of humanitarian emergencies, a new report by Christian Aid has said.   The early 2000s saw a major round of debt relief for countries caught in a trap of debt repayments, in response to the Jubilee 2000 campaigns. Since the western financial crisis of 2008, there has been another boom in irresponsible lending to countries of the global south. Global debt rose to record levels in 2016 and this lending boom is threatening to set a new debt trap for people in poverty around the world.   The report The New Global Debt Crisis – published in collaboration with the Jubilee Debt Campaign – is urging the UK Government to end its complicity in exacerbating the already desperate situations faced by some of the world’s poorest countries.   One such example is Sierra Leone, which had little choice but to accept loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to help it cope with the Ebola crisis which struck in 2014, killing nearly 4,000 people by January 2016, and 10% of the country’s health workers.   These large repayments inhibit the government of Sierra Leone from being able to look after the basic needs of its own citizens. The West African country lacks funds for proper health clinics, health training and enough ambulances, making it the most dangerous place in the world to become a mum.   Christian Aid is appealing to the whole international community to find urgent solutions, but particularly to the UK Government which has a disproportionate role in the debt crisis. Almost half of international loans are owed under English law for which the UK parliament has responsibility.   Laura Taylor, Christian Aid’s director of policy and public affairs, said:   “It is shocking that developing countries find themselves yet again on the brink of a global debt crisis, 15 years after the last major round of debt relief. Countries like Sierra Leone, the most dangerous place in the world to become a mum, face huge debt repayments which deprive them of resources to protect their own citizens.   "It is unacceptable for the UK Government to be complicit in this new debt crisis, which sees some of the poorest countries in the world struggling and unable to get back on their feet following major humanitarian emergencies.   “The UK has a strong history of helping these countries when they are most in need; but too often the lack of transparency in the loans means we are giving with one hand and taking away with the other. It’s time we played our part in ending this new debt crisis rather than exacerbating it. It is already having a serious impact on the lives of some of the world’s most vulnerable, which is why in this report, we are calling for urgent action to be taken.”   Campaigners are calling on the UK to use its influence with the IMF to ensure all Sierra Leone’s debts on the loans the country received for fighting the Ebola outbreak are written off.   Christian Aid is urging that: UK law is urgently changed to ensure that loans given under UK law, or by British-based banks, are transparent. Vulture funds are banned from profiting via the new debt crisis through UK courts.   Apr. 2019   Crisis deepens as global South debt payments increase by 85%. (Jubilee Debt Campaign)   External debt payments by developing country governments grew by 85%, as a proportion of government revenue, between 2010 and 2018. For the countries with the highest payments, in two-thirds public spending is falling. The largest cuts were in Egypt, Cameroon, Angola and Mongolia, all of which are on IMF loan programmes.   The new analysis from Jubilee Debt Campaign shows that average government external debt payments across the 124 developing countries for which data is available have increased from 6.6% of government revenue in 2010 to 12.2% of government revenue in 2018, an increase of 85%. This is the highest level since 2004, when such payments were 13.8% of government revenue.   This rapid increase comes after a lending boom driven by low global interest rates. External loans to developing country governments more than doubled from $191 billion per year in 2008 to $424 billion in 2017 (the latest year with figures available).   Tim Jones, Head of Policy at the Jubilee Debt Campaign said: “The growing debt crisis needs urgent international attention. A vital first step is to require that all loans to governments are publicly disclosed, allowing parliaments, media and civil society to hold governments to account for new borrowing.   “In addition, when crises arise, the IMF should stop bailing out reckless lenders, and require debts to be reduced instead, so that the costs of crises are shared between borrower and lender. All too often, the lenders who helped to cause the crisis are bailed out, while all the costs of irresponsible lending are born by people in the borrowing country.   “There is now evidence of falling public spending in countries hit by high debt payments, further undermining progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.”   Jubilee Debt Campaign has also calculated that in the 15 countries with the highest debt payments, in ten of them public spending per person fell between 2016 and 2018. Across the 15, public spending fell by an average of 4%.   In contrast, of the 15 countries with the lowest debt payments, in just two did public spending per person fall between 2016 and 2018. On average across these 15, public spending increased by 11%.   http://jubileedebt.org.uk/press-release/crisis-deepens-as-global-south-debt-payments-increase-by-85 http://www.christianaid.org.uk/sites/default/files/2019-05/The-new-global-debt-crisis-report-May2019.pdf   Mar. 2018   An expected rise in US interest rates will increase financial pressures on developing countries already struggling with a 60% jump in their debt repayments since 2014, a leading charity has warned.   The Jubilee Debt Campaign said a study of 126 developing nations showed that they were devoting more than 10% of their revenues on average to paying the interest on money borrowed – the highest level since before the G7 agreement to write off the debts of the world’s poorest nations at Gleneagles, Scotland, in 2005.   Five of the countries on the charity’s list – Angola, Lebanon, Ghana, Chad and Bhutan – were spending more than a third of government revenues on servicing debts.   Developing country debt moved down the international agenda following the Gleneagles agreement in which the G7 industrial countries agreed to write off the debts owed to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank by the 18 poor countries.   But developing country debt is now once again being closely monitored by the IMF, which says 30 of the 67 poor countries it assesses are in debt distress or at risk of being so.   Lending to developing countries almost doubled between 2008 and 2014 as low interest rates in the west led to a search for higher-yielding investments. A boom in commodity prices meant many poor countries borrowed in anticipation of tax receipts that have not materialised.   The Jubilee Debt Campaign says the boom–bust in commodity prices was only one factor behind rising debt, pointing out that some countries were paying back money owed by former dictators, while others had been struggling with high debts for many years but had not been eligible for help. The campaign said developing countries were also vulnerable to a rise in global interest rates as central banks withdrew the support they have been providing since 2008.   The US Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates this week – with the financial markets expecting two or three further upward moves during 2018.   Tim Jones, an economist at the Jubilee Debt Campaign, said: “Debt payments for many countries have risen rapidly as a result of a lending boom and fall in commodity prices. The situation may worsen further as US dollar interest rates rise, and as other central banks reduce monetary stimulus. Debt payments are reducing government budgets when more spending is needed to meet the sustainable development goals.”   External loans to developing country governments rose from $200bn per year in 2008 to $390bn in 2014 and while they have since dropped to $300-350bn per year from 2015-2017 they remained well above levels seen prior to the global financial crisis.   Commodity prices peaked in the middle of 2014 and more than halved over the next 18 months. Despite a recovery from their low in January 2016 they remain more than 40% lower than they were at their peak.   The Jubilee Debt Campaign said the fall in global commodity prices had reduced the income of many governments that are reliant on commodity exports for earnings. In addition, weaker commodity prices led to the exchange rates of developing countries falling against the US dollar, increasing the relative size of debt payments since external debts tend to be owed in dollars.   Angola and Mozambique – two sub-Saharan African countries heavily dependent on commodity exports – had both seen falls of 50% in their exchange rates since 2014.   Jones said there had been a lack of transparency about how debts had been incurred. And he said private lenders should suffer from any restructuring agreements.   “Where there are debt crises, the risk is that the IMF will bail out reckless lenders, and the debt will remain with the country concerned,” Jones said. “Instead, reckless lenders need to be made to bear some of the costs of economic shocks through lower debt payments, allowing governments to maintain spending on essential services.” http://bit.ly/2DGdGIl Visit the related web page
	Human rights principles to assess austerity are needed by Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights   Feb. 2018   The negative impact of austerity measures on human rights should no longer be ignored, and effective action to avoid the impact is long overdue, the UN’s expert on foreign debt, finance and rights has told the Human Rights Council in Geneva.   “There are well-documented lessons about the negative impact of economic measures adopted in times of financial crisis,” said Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky, who presented a full report on the issue to the Council.   “Some of these lessons date back decades, but they remain neglected in decision-making, and so the same mistakes are made over and over again. The instrumental role that human rights can and must play in designing and implementing economic reforms has not been effectively incorporated.”   His report is the first in a series aimed at highlighting the known shortcomings of economic reform policies, including austerity measures, which have severe consequences on human rights, especially in social security, work, health and housing. These measures have also weakened democratic institutions and can lead to insecurity, conflict and violence.   Mr. Bohoslavsky has embarked on a year-long project to develop guiding principles for States and other relevant parties to assess economic reform policies from a human rights perspective, and to learn from past and present mistakes. Preliminary aspects of these principles are outlined in the report presented today, and aim at triggering discussion and broad participation.   “Managing economic and fiscal affairs is a core government function, intimately linked to its human rights obligations,” Mr. Bohoslavsky underlined.   “The extent to which budget cuts undermine human rights depends entirely on who is consulted, what priorities are established and how such cuts are implemented.”   The UN expert added: “Ultimately, the critical questions to ask are whether budget cuts will worsen existing inequalities, and who will be the most affected by those measures.”   The Independent Expert also presented three reports on his 2017 visits to Tunisia, Panama and Switzerland, which all include assessment of the progress made on curbing illicit financial flows.   “Tax justice is a pressing human rights issue,” said Mr. Bohoslavsky. “The more emphasis we place on its international dimensions and human rights implications, and on the need for all countries to engage domestically and internationally in fighting tax evasion, tax fraud and overall opacity, the closer we will come to meaningful changes.” http://bit.ly/2FRNo8G http://bit.ly/2D0iiIN   Feb. 2018   Assessing Austerity: Monitoring the human rights impacts of fiscal consolidation, a report from the Center for Economic and Social Rights.   In the decade since the 2008 global economic crisis, fiscal austerity has become the new normal. In the name of fiscal discipline, governments in more than two-thirds of countries throughout the world have enacted drastic austerity measures like severe public expenditure cuts, regressive tax changes, and labor market and pension reforms, effectively disinvesting in human rights.   Draconian fiscal adjustments have undermined human rights of all types—from the rights to education, food, health and housing to the rights to decent work, fair wages and social security; and from freedom of expression to the rights to life and personal security. In the process, these unnecessary and unjustified policies have also aggravated disparities such as those of income, gender, race, age, disability and migration status.   Assessing Austerity: Monitoring the human rights impacts of fiscal consolidation argues that ten years on from the global financial crisis, another lost decade for human rights due to fiscal consolidation is impermissible. The briefing outlines practical guidance for policymakers, oversight bodies, civil society actors and others seeking to assess and address the foreseeable human rights consequences of austerity. It offers an adaptable methodological framework to inform the content and process of conducting effective Human Rights Impact Assessments (HRIAs) of fiscal consolidation measures. Further, the briefing demonstrates why a human rights assessment of austerity is at once necessary, feasible and ultimately quite valuable in advancing a suite of alternative policies that would prevent harmful forms of fiscal consolidation in the future.   http://www.cesr.org/assessing-austerity-monitoring-human-rights-impacts-fiscal-consolidation   * List of reports to March 2018 session UN Human Rights Council: http://bit.ly/2nESyND Visit the related web page
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