African countries are essentially placed in the position of a supplicant appealing to the kindness of creditors.
A Russian foreign debt will have limited implications for global financial markets but will affect Russia’s credit risk profile.
Yuri Kochetkov/EPA-EFE
The idea: to use the credit channel by making foreign banks bear the consequences of the devaluation of the Russian currency.
PM Boris Johnson (left) and Chancellor Rishi Sunak have come up with money to underwrite wages, rescue packages and meal vouchers during the pandemic.
Jonathan Brady/PA Wire/PA Images
Developing countries face greater risks raising money to deal with the pandemic. Zambia is now on the verge of being the first ‘COVID default’ and other developing countries could follow suit.
People wearing face masks walk in front of a euro sign in the center of Frankfurt am Main, Germany (October 21, 2020).
Yann Schreiber/AFP
The global economy is currently experiencing its severest contraction since the 1930s. While capitalism will survive, its fundamental structure can change at critical historical junctures.
Shopping under quarantine in Buenos Aires.
Juan Ignacio Roncoroni/EPA
The alarm being raised by multilateral financial institutions about rising government debt across Africa is exaggerated. The real problem is that African governments pay way over the odds for debt.
A rally celebrating the second anniversary of Russia’s annexation of Crimea, March 18, 2016.
AP/Ivan Sekretarev
Richard Carney, China Europe International Business School
Almost one-third of countries around the world are authoritarian regimes with the trappings of democracy. Their bad behavior poses a threat to real democracies, as the United States recently learned.
South Africa has narrowly escaped a downgrade of the rating of its sovereign bonds, but government has its work cut out as it seeks to restore investor confidence and lift economic growth.
Greece needs genuine European support.
EPA/Alexandros Vlachos
Credit rating agencies have come in for a lot of flack. But the bottom line is that to attract investors with deep pockets countries can’t avoid having a credit rating. And a good one at that.
Large movements in relative prices will create winners and losers this year, the IMF has said.
EPA/MICHAEL REYNOLDS
Helen Westerman, The Conversation and Sunanda Creagh, The Conversation
A new IMF report predicts a crackdown on cheap credit in China will help reduce China’s real GDP growth rate from 7.4% last year to 6.8% this year and further weaken demand for Australian commodities.
Decades ago, before Yanis Varoufakis became the rock-star finance minister of Greece, he and I developed some game-theoretic models of macroeconomics. The gist of the work was this: for monetary authorities…
We all want governments to do more with our taxes, so should we be willing to pay more?
Photo sourced from Shutterstock.com
The same deep forces that were behind the election result in Queensland are being played out in Canberra. The Australian people want, although most won’t admit it, higher taxes – either now or in the future…
Newly appointed Finance Minister Yannis Varoufakis arrives at the Presidential Palace to be sworn-in under Greece’s new government.
Yannis Kolesidis/EPA/AAP
Since 2009, the economic situation of Greece has helped expose the architecture and policy regime problems of the European Union and the eurozone. On Sunday the Greek electorate rebelled against the self-defeating…
Sovereign debt, crises and default have been regular features of the Argentine economy for years – but the latest debt crisis, involving the government and the so-called “vulture funds”, has thrown up…
Sovereign debt is a crucial lubricant for growth, especially among emerging nations, and so it is equally crucial that we can ensure the interminable row over Argentina’s default is not repeated. Measures…