To mitigate the shock, Nigeria and Ethiopia injected of money in their economies, others, like the
Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire, have postponed the payment of taxes and duties for companies, Tunisia a
suspended the payment of bank loans for the most modest households, created a fund de support
to businesses, etc. But the margin de maneuver of one is of the other is small. Benin has already
indicated that it had neither the means of a lockdown nor those necessary to manage the post-crisis period, seeming
thus abandoning its fate to natural regulation. "Many African states do not have de submissiveness
monetary. They cannot, therefore, increase their deficit like the rich countries, stresses
Senegalese economist Ndongo Samba Sylla. They must therefore review their budget and hope for aid and loans
de the international community." Rearrange their budget means "reallocate certain expenses
and remove others, such as the service de the debt".
Hence the many calls to suspend payments to creditors. This option is "the most quick de watch money in African countries", as tim Jones, <span class="fontstyle2">de the organization
British Jubilee Debt Campaign. Currently, debt weighs heavily on national budgets: a lot
de country have become heavily indebted in recent years, sometimes de reckless way, especially by
the issuance of "Eurobonds". The debt de the Afrique subsaharienne has thus passed de 236 billion de dollars,
in 2008, to 583 billion in 2018, according to the World Bank. Average public debt increased de 40
% to 59% of GDP. For some states, the service de debt is more de 25% of their revenues (42%
for Angola, 39.1 per cent for Ghana). A majority de countries spend more on debt than on health.
Just one example: Cameroon spends 23.8% de se revenues to the service de debt, against 6.9% to the
health, according to Jubilee Debt Campaign. This year, the continent is expected to pay a total of 44 billion de dollars
interest to its external creditors.
At the end of March, African finance ministers collectively challenged their bilateral creditors,
multilateral and commercial. "Development partners should consider easing de la
debt and forbearance from interest payments over a period de two to three years for all countries
africans," they said, saying they needed a plan de relance de 100 billion de dollars,
of which 44 billion would be spent on relief of debt. Their call is supported by the Conference of
United Nations on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The latter pleads for an "immediate freeze
payments de the sovereign debt" of developing countries, which "should be followed by relief
significant de the debt". It also calls for capital controls.
"A cancellation debt without conditionalities would be the ideal scenario," says Ndongo Samba Sylla. But
creditors will resist. Currently, about 35% of Africa's debt is held by institutions
multilateral such as the IMF, 20% by China and 32% by private entities, including banks,
companies de négoce de primary materials and companiesof asset management. In 2018, private creditors
accounted for 55% of external interest payments, bilateral 28% and multilateral 17%, according to
Jubilee Debt Campaign. In the 1990s and 2000s, the situation was very different, since the debt was
mainly public and due to Western countries and international financial institutions.
"The IMF and the World Bank are increasing the volume de profile"
"Given the difficulties of advanced economies and the change de profile of creditors during de la
Over the past decade, the scenario of a relief <span class="fontstyle2">de the debt is unimaginable in the short term", analyses Eugène
Nyambal. According to this Cameroonian economist and former IMF executive: "Private creditors do not
will probably not waive their claims. The priority of Westerners is de protect their
financial institutions, their financial markets, their private sector. The United States, which controls the IMF, does not >< will not want a reduction or cancellation de the multilateral debt of African countries, which would benefit
directly or indirectly to China. Because the money released by a lightening de dette could be
used by the beneficiary States to reimburse the sums they owe to Beijing. Unless the
Chinese government does de onside a temporary freeze on payment de the debt of African countries.
In any case, a cancellation would be very difficult to achieve on the side de the World Bank, because it has
Access to the financial market: Cancelling the debt of African countries would mean that its own creditors
would erase the same amounts in their books, an impeccable prospect.
A moratorium on payment de public external debt seems, de this fact, the most likely scenario.
The G20 countries could announce a decision along these lines this week. Not willing to
the IMF and the World Bank have chosen this path by calling March 25 "all
official bilateral creditors to suspend repayments de scale claimed" to low
income "that requests a delay of grace".
The IMF has certainly strengthened a trust fund that should allow the poorest states de repay it
part of their debts. But this fund does not come from de its capital: it is fed by donations from
rich countries. The money that the IMF has raised in recent days to bail it out allowed it to announce 13
April, with great help de advertising, which he granted to twenty-five countries, nineteen of which are African, a reduction of the six-month debt up to of 215 million de Dollars. A measure that costs him nothing, but which
was considered very insufficient by NGOs and economists.
"The magnitude the economic crisis facing developing countries requires the IMF to goes much further. The IMF has de 27 billion de dollars de reserves and de more de 135 billion de
goldollars. He can afford to cancel <span class="fontstyle0">de dettes, and now is the time to do it. It is necessary that
the cancellation of payments is extended to a much larger group of developing countries and
this, for the whole coming year," reacted Jubilee Debt Campaign. To establish its selection of the twenty-five countries
The IMF relied solely on the basis of gross per capita income, not on the vulnerabilityde debt, nor on exposure to exogenous shocks such as falling material prices
first.
The international financial institutions, on the other hand, leave their doors wide open for de
new credits. The IMF has made $50 billion of dollars available to low Emerging. In recent days, it has multiplied disbursements: it has already granted loans to Gabon, in
Ghana, Madagascar, Rwanda, Senegal, Tunisia, Togo. Beneficiaries de credits will have to implement reforms to "reassure about the possibility of a strong recovery", warned the
World Bank, repeating its usual liberal credo. In countries "for which regulations
excessive, subsidies, schemes de delivery de permitted, trade protection or
Judicialization are obstacles, we will work with them to stimulate markets, promote de
best choices," she said.
"The IMF and the World Bank are increasing the volume de the debt," said Eugène Nyambal.
This is hardly surprising: "Before the financial crisisde 2008, which helped restore health
The IMF's financial crisis, experienced an unprecedented crisis, when emerging countries had
diverted from it to borrow from the financial markets. This had caused him a loss of income and
had forced her to dismiss a hundred de people. Since then, the IMF has amended its instruments to
maximize its volume of loans, including from the poorest countries. He lends in turn de bras for
ensure that it will have a volume de credits sufficient to reap, with interest, profits that
will cover his costs de working over the next twenty years." Cameroonian economist
compares the amount de the cancellation of the debt announced on April 13 by the IMF for twenty-five countries, i.e. 215
millions de dollars (which makes an average de 8.6 million of dollars for each country), with that of
"emergency credit" granted on the same day to Senegal, i.e. 442 million de dollars that will increase
the already high debt de this country of West Africa. He fears that the need de reduce the debt of
poor countries are not suffocated by of these announcement effects.
It is therefore likely a future of indebtedness and de painful structural adjustment plans that
is emerging for many of countries of Africa and other continents. However, there is an option, already set in
work by some of them, which should allow them to avoid de creuser their debt and de se
find more prisoners of IMF programs: the reorganization de their public spending
and of their portfolio de already existing debts to their main donors de fonds, so of reasign
credits to priorities class="fontstyle0">de fight against the Covid-19 virus.