New York: Innovative measures to address debt are required to help the world’s more than 100 middle-income countries expand their economies and exit the covid-19 pandemic, United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres told the General Assembly on Thursday.
Addressing a high-level meeting on these nations, which account for more than half of the UN’s 193 Member States, he underlined the need for financing to help them recover in the wake of the global crisis.
He said that middle-income countries should have their debts suspended into 2022 to cope with the social and economic impact of the virus.
"In small island states, for example, the collapse of tourism has greatly hindered their capacity to repay debts. And while the global response to the debt crisis is rightly attempting to support low-income countries, middle-income countries must not be left behind," he stated.
Diversity defines the world’s middle-income countries, which were already home to some 62 per cent of the world’s poor prior to the pandemic.
The list includes India, which has a population of more than one billion, and Palau, an archipelago in the Pacific island with less than 20,000 people.
Besides population size, these countries also vary in economic activity, geography and income levels per capita, which ranges from $1,000 to $12,000 annually, meaning they often exceed per capita income thresholds for debt relief.
Last year, the G20 leading economies announced a debt service suspension initiative which allows the world’s poorest countries to temporarily halt bilateral credit payments.
The Secretary-General said the measure should be extended into 2022 and made available to highly indebted, vulnerable middle-income countries that request it.
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