This archive report was first published on 14 May 2020.
Published on May 14, 2020, a letter signed by over 300 lawmakers from around the world urged the International Monetary Fund and World Bank to cancel the debt of the poorest countries in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The lawmakers, representing two dozen countries on all six continents, argued that widespread shutdowns aimed at containing the virus were taking a huge toll on the global economy, especially poor countries with weak health systems, high debt levels, and few resources to manage the dual health and economic crises.
IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva had earlier stated that the Fund was 'very likely' to revise downward its forecast that global output would shrink by 3 per cent in 2020, and said developing countries would need more than $2.5 trillion in financing to weather the storm.
Former US presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders, who led the initiative along with Representative Ilhan Omar, a Democrat from Minnesota, said poor countries needed every cent to care for their people, instead of servicing the 'unsustainable debts' they owe financial institutions.
He added that cancelling their debt was 'the very least that the World Bank, IMF, and other international financial institutions should do to prevent an unimaginable increase in poverty, hunger, and disease that threatens hundreds of millions of people.'
