IMF Pushes For Changes Governing Debt Restructurings

• International Monetary Fund officials on Thursday warned that risks of a sovereign debt crisis sparked by the coronavirus pandemic will rise without changes to the international debt architecture, including more transparency for government borrowing.
• In a blog post and speech, IMF officials called for the G20 debt service suspension initiative to be extended for another 12 months until the end of 2021, and a common restructuring approach across all official bilateral creditors, including China. A new IMF research paper also laid out options for improving debt transparency and restructuring.
• “A pandemic-induced systemic debt crisis cannot be ruled out,” IMF First Deputy Managing Director Geoffrey Okamoto said in remarks prepared for delivery to a Peterson Institute for International Economics online event. “The longer the problem is postponed, the worse it will become.”

(Source: Reuters)