In war, as the saying goes, truth is often the first casualty. During the pandemic and its economic shocks, however, truth has become a blessing for some. Take the African country of Chad. When its debt levels grew too onerous late last year, it was forthcoming with creditors about its finances. By February, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreed to loan it $560 million. In return, Chad promised to improve its debt transparency.
For poor countries with rising foreign debts, honesty in financial data has become a necessity if they expect credit relief. Even before the pandemic, nearly half of low-income countries were alreadyin debt trouble. Now with the worst recession in peacetime since the Great Depression…
Read the full article at: https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2021/0316/The-first-necessity-in-debt-relief
