DEBT CRISES HITTING BOTH RICH AND POOR COUNTRIES THREATEN UN DEVELOPMENT AGENDA, OFFICIALS SAY

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From: UNNews <UNNews@un.org>
Date: 23 Apr 2013 16:00:01 -0400
Subject: DEBT CRISES HITTING BOTH RICH AND POOR COUNTRIES THREATEN UN
DEVELOPMENT AGENDA, OFFICIALS SAY
To: news11@ny-mail-p-lb-028.ptc.un.org

DEBT CRISES HITTING BOTH RICH AND POOR COUNTRIES THREATEN UN
DEVELOPMENT AGENDA, OFFICIALS SAYNew York, Apr 23 2013 4:00PMDebt
distress, no longer just the province of poor countries, is a drag on
development programmes as well as on the world economy, United Nations
leaders said today as economic experts and representatives of
international financial institutions met to discuss practical and
equitable mechanisms for restructuring sovereign debt.

"The difference between today's crisis and other recent crises is
that, today, problems related to sovereign debt are not confined to
emerging markets or low income countries," Néstor Osorio, president of
the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) said at the opening of a
special meeting entitled "External debt sustainability and
development: Lessons learned from debt crises and ongoing work on
sovereign debt restructuring and debt resolution mechanisms."

"To achieve sustainable development, the international community needs
to promote responsible borrowing and lending, along with improved debt
management," Mr. Osorio said.

Today's meeting comes one day after ECOSOC hosted a special high-level
forum with the Bretton Woods institutions, the World Trade
Organization (WTO) and the UN Conference on Trade and Development
(UNCTAD) on "Coherence, coordination and cooperation in the context of
financing for sustainable development and the post-2015 development
agenda."

Mr. Osorio noted that today's debate on sovereign debt restructuring
has important implications for the financing of sustainable
development and the development agenda following the 2015 deadline of
the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that aim to slash extreme
poverty and accompanying ills.

The total external debt of developing countries and countries with
economies in transition surpassed $4 trillion by the end of 2010,
according to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's 2012 report on external
debt sustainability and development, with an estimated 12 per cent
increase annually after.

"Countries in debt distress are generally unable to attract necessary
financing for sustainable development," the ECOSOC president noted. He
added that countries with debt overhangs often spend a large
proportion of public resources on debt servicing, and are unable to
allocate public revenue to expenditures necessary for sustainable
development.

Also addressing the special meeting, the Assistant Secretary-General
of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Shashad Akhtar
highlighted the importance of closing the gaps in debt management
through restructuring, early response and coordination.

"There is a need for a process through which there is early engagement
of debtors and creditors to frankly address unsustainable situations
on a timely basis, which would reduce overall uncertainty in affected
economies, as well as for a framework for creditor consultation and
structures for engagement with debtors," Ms. Akhtar said.

She added that unlike in the 1980s when the main creditors were large
commercial banks, today's bonds are held by a variety of entities and
individuals. As a result, one of the issues that needs to be addressed
is collective action involving creditors.

Meanwhile, the Secretary-General of the UN Conference on Trade and
Development (UNCTAD), Supachai Panitchpakdi, cautioned that not all
origins of the debt crises are financial and as a result cannot be
solved solely with financial means.

"If you go overboard with austerity measures, that might reduce growth
without reducing debt," Mr. Panitchpakdi said.

He noted that piecemeal solutions had been put forward in hopes that
banking system would resume lending without cleaning up its balance
sheets, while countries had waited too long for restructuring efforts
to be executed, creating economic uncertainties and hindered growth.

Today's ECOSOC meeting included a series of presentations from senior
officials of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) and
included a range of roundtable discussions, such as one on the
perspective of the private sector on restructuring debt.

This afternoon, the Nobel Prize Laureate and President of Columbia
University, Joseph Stiglitz, will give the keynote address entitled
"Gaps in legal and institutional structures for debt restructuring."

The meetings are part of a larger effort to strengthen relations
between the UN and international financial institutions such as the
World Bank and the IMF.

Last week, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon co-hosted a series of events
on themes linked to the MDGs with World Bank President Jim Yong Kim on
the sidelines of the 2013 spring World Bank-IMF meeting.Apr 23 2013
4:00PM
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