The United Nations (UN) has faulted the developed economies around the world for causing debt distress in 25 Least Developed Countries (LDCs), the majority of which are from Africa.
This was revealed during the ongoing UN Conference on LDC in Doha, Qatar, a four-day conference that is expected to end on Thursday, March 9.
According to the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the mess has been created by wealthy nations to serve their own interest and they must pay for it.
He termed the situation “extremely unfair” to LDCs who are paying interest rates eight times higher than the wealthy nations while sourcing credit from multilateral lenders.
“Today, 25 developing economies are spending over 20 percent of government revenues solely on servicing debt,” said Guterres.
Guterres said these states have been handed the rawest of deals and urgently need support to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through an injection of at least $500 million yearly.
