Global roundtable sees rising debt risks for low-income countries as uncertainty mounts

By Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON, April 23 (Reuters) - More work is needed to improve the sovereign debt restructuring process and help countries facing mounting debt service challenges, the chairs of a global debt roundtable said on Wednesday, as they released a new playbook to aid those efforts.

The Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable, formally launched in late 2022 to help accelerate progress on securing debt treatment for countries in default, met Wednesday during the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

Co-chaired by the IMF, the World Bank and South Africa, current chair of the Group of 20 major economies, it includes creditors, borrowing countries, private sector executives, debt experts, and financial and legal advisers.

Co-chairs on Wednesday cited some progress on aspects for the debt restructuring process, including the clarification that debtor countries undergoing a restructuring but not in arrears to official bilateral creditors can request a suspension of their debt service payments. Debtor countries had pressed for assurance that such debt relief could be made available.

The IMF on Wednesday announced that economic pressures from steep new U.S. tariffs will push global public debt above pandemic-era levels to nearly 100% of global GDP by the end of the decade as slower growth and trade strain government budgets.

The IMF's latest Fiscal Monitor projected that global public debt will grow 2.8 percentage points to 95.1% of global GDP in 2025, reaching 99.6% of global GDP by 2030.