The world’s most indebted countries face another year in limbo

By Cerian Richmond Jones

Twenty years ago, debt restructurings were a triumph of multilateralism. Governments and banks, watched over by the IMF, worked together to reduce the debts of countries that could no longer pay their bills. In return, poor countries agreed to the kind of free-market reforms that had made their creditors prosper. An official “Heavily Indebted Poor Countries” (HIPC) plan made write-downs of huge swathes of debt routine and relatively painless. Restructurings were proof of globalisation going well, and of the benevolence of rich countries at the helm.