So, what shifted beneath the surface this year to drive LMICs debt stocks?
One major factor was the increase in debt reorganization by LMICs. Such efforts hit their highest level since 2010, with most agreements involving IDA-eligible countries. Reorganizations included restructuring under the Group of Twenty Common Framework, debt swaps, and agreements with private creditors, notably bondholders.
And progress is occurring — on the margins. Haiti, Ghana, Somalia, and Sri Lanka, for example, secured restructuring agreements that shrank their long-term external debt by anywhere from 4 percent to 70 percent. With support from the Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable, Ghana completed its restructuring in half the time of previous…