Requests from the poor countries for a comprehensive package of debt relief to help poor countries cope with the corona virus pandemic have intensified after research by JDC (Jubilee Debt Campaign) showed that more than 60 including the most poorer countries are spending more on paying their creditors than they are on health even when there is a grave health crisis. This is due to the high borrowing of the poor governments and high interest on the loan.
The coronavirus outbreak threatens to disproportionately devastate the economies of already impoverished countries as they gear up to tackle a health crisis with extremely limited resources, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)has warned.
The socioeconomic hit on poor and developing countries will take years to recover from, UNDP said in a report released on Monday, stressing that income losses in those countries are forecast to exceed $220bn. Nearly half of all jobs in Africa could be lost, it also warned.
The sad part is that the most vulnerable countries to COVID 19 are the poorest countries. And the worst part is that they are using more their resources in debt servicing than on health system. For example, there are countries in the world that have ventilators not more than 10 but they are paying their Intereston time.
"Poorer countries will take the hardest hit, especially ones that were already heavily indebted before the crisis," the World Bank's President David Malpass,told the International Monetary and Financial Committee, the steering committee of the IMF.
The most hard-hit regions would Africa and Asia where are a great number of daily laborers and these cant even afford to eat 2 times a day. How would they afford masks and hygiene products? Due to lockdown, these people are now striving for1-time food.
Now comes those countries which have oil and agriculture-based economies. These countries are badly damaged by the COVID 19. As the demand for Oil products decreases and oil storages are full, as a result, oil prices are sharply decreasing. Even the export of perishable items is not occurring due to the global lockdown amid the Coronavirus Pandemic. As a result, these countries face a sharp decline in export and as a result, unemployment increases in these countries.
