Publications /
Policy Brief

Back
Proposals to Strengthen the Sovereign Debt Restructuring Framework
Authors
Brahima Coulibaly
Wafa Abedin
September 26, 2024

This paper was originally published on t20brasil.org

 

The developing world is once again facing unsustainable sovereign debt levels that threaten to erase several years of progress on development agendas. The COVID-19 pandemic, Russia-Ukraine war, and high interest rates are the latest in a series of events that have contributed to the recent build-up of debt and raised the cost of debt financing for developing countries. The G20’s Common Framework (CF) for debt treatments is a welcome initiative but it has not been effective. Protracted debt negotiations reveal the challenges presented by new lenders, notably private creditors. Private creditors hold more than a quarter of the external debt stock, up from only 10 percent in 2010, and the cost of servicing private-sector debt makes up more than two-thirds of total debt-service payments. Absent a central sovereign bankruptcy regime, debt restructurings arrive too late, with elevated risk premia and high socio-economic costs. In support of the CF’s aims, we propose a G20-backed effort to incentivise private-sector participation in sovereign debt restructurings. The laws governing sovereign debt fall under a few jurisdictions, all of them in G20 countries who could enact legislation to encourage private-sector participation in debt restructuring. New York and U.K. lawmakers have already begun to propose such legislation. This policy brief elaborates on the deficiencies of the current architecture for sovereign debt restructuring and proposes that the G20 develop a framework to help harmonize and strengthen domestic sovereign debt restructuring laws.

RELATED CONTENT

  • Authors
    Ilham Najib
    January 29, 2024
    Morocco is positioned as a new global hub of the automotive industry in an increasingly volatile international context, with various emerging countries competing intensively to gain the best returns on openness and globalization. The Moroccan automotive industry’s recent performance shows it to be the most dynamic sector in the economy: from 2014 to 2019, value-added in the automotive sector increased by almost 70% while the overall national value-added increased by only 15%. In the ...
  • Authors
    João Gabriel Sacco
    January 23, 2024
    - Brazil’s latest tax reform will replace five taxes on consumption with one single VAT to promote greater efficiency and sectoral isonomy. - Forecasts produced by a detailed ICGE model point to sizeable gains in GDP exceeding 4% in the long run, even if spatially unequal. - Exceptions to the rules reduce potential benefits in efficiency terms. - Policies meant to promote regional development and close the gap deepened by the reform partially achieve their goal at the expense of ...
  • Authors
    January 2, 2024
    This paper was originally published on The South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) In order for Africa to raise living standards, create employment for youth and diversify exports, it must industrialise. Until recently, sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries made limited progress in manufacturing value addition and employment, mirroring the de-industrialisation trend seen in many developing countries. To propel industrialisation, SSA countries should adopt flexible st ...
  • Authors
    Ana Maria Bonomi Barufi
    Peter Nijkamp
    December 29, 2023
    This Paper was originally published on onlinelibrary.wiley.com   This study aims to shed new empirical light on the importance of the wage curve in a developing economy. The main contribution to the empirical literature is related to the analysis being conducted at different regional levels of a developing economy. This indicates that municipal-level data seems to be more adequate for wage curve evaluation, and that spatial dependency should be considered to adequately control for ...
  • December 28, 2023
    In this episode, we interviewed Mr. Arkebe Oqubay Metiku, British Academy Global Professor, SOAS University of London around Africa's industrial policies and their impact on growth. We discussed key elements such as innovation, regional collaboration, sustainability, and intellectual pr...
  • Authors
    Inácio F. Araújo
    Fernando S. Perobelli
    December 11, 2023
    This Paper was originally published on sciencedirect.com   From a time-space perspective, we assess the effects of geographical proximity on technological convergence over time identifying proximity dimensions associated with countries’ technological similarities. We compare a time series of input-output coefficients for 66 different countries extracted from the 2021 edition of OECD Inter-Country Input-Output to verify whether nearby countries are more likely to share similar tech ...
  • November 30, 2023
    In this episode, we dive into the pressing necessity for climate initiatives in Africa. Despite its minimal global emissions, Africa grapples with severe climate challenges and a substantial funding shortfall. Yet, as obstacles persist, including the disconnect between investor expectat...
  • November 22, 2023
    As part of the webinar series: “The Global Economy in Transition : Implications for Developing Countries”, the Policy Center for the New South is organizing a webinar titled: " The Future of Central Banks in Emerging Markets and Developing Countries” to contribute to the debate around t...
  • Authors
    November 21, 2023
    Multiple shocks faced by the global economy over the past three years have apparently shaken the conventional wisdom on gains from economic integration, and have sparked widespread calls for protectionist and nationalist policies. Is there already evidence of some ‘deglobalization’, or do the factors that underlie globalization remain strong enough despite the shocks? So far, there are no signs of an overall reversal in the long-term trend of greater global trade integration. Howev ...