Debt Payment Suspended For Poorest Countries Till End-2020 Due To COVID-19 - G7 Ministers

Debt Payment Suspended For Poorest Countries Till End-2020 Due To COVID-19 - G7 Ministers

The Group of Seven nations will extend a debt freeze for the world's poorest nations until the end of the year in order to help them cope with the coronavirus pandemic, G7 finance ministers said in a joint statement on Friday

WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th September, 2020) The Group of Seven nations will extend a debt freeze for the world's poorest nations until the end of the year in order to help them cope with the coronavirus pandemic, G7 finance ministers said in a joint statement on Friday.

"To support our efforts to help the most vulnerable countries, we are implementing the G20-Paris Club Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) to suspend official bilateral debt payments for the poorest countries through end-2020," the ministers said in a statement issued via the US Treasury Department.

The DSSI has been fundamental in supporting 43 countries by freeing up $5 billion in fiscal space to fund social, health, and economic measures to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, the statement said.

Nonetheless, the program has faced shortcomings that have prevented it from delivering its full potential, said the G7 finance ministers, who expressed regret particularly by some countries to classify large state-owned, government-controlled financial institutions as commercial lenders and not as official bilateral creditors, without providing comparable treatment nor transparency.

This significantly reduced the magnitude of the initiative and the benefits of the DSSI for developing countries, they added.