The Way Out of Africa’s Debt Doom Loop
When development policymakers convene next week at the Spring Meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, they must pursue ambitious reforms of the global financial architecture. Otherwise, African countries will continue to be treated as less equal, condemning them to default-driven borrowing costs.
CAMBRIDGE – “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others,” George Orwell famously wrote in Animal Farm, his allegory of Stalinism. But Orwell’s maxim could just as easily apply to the sovereign-debt crisis in Africa. Low-income African countries have the smallest share of global public debt but are more likely to be in debt distress or at high risk of it.