The Looming Debt Crisis About to Make Everything Worse

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It’s hard to imagine a more chaotic world than the one we’re in right now—what with Russia’s war on Ukraine, a Covid-19 pandemic that won’t quit and the lockdowns spreading across China as a result. Now, add to the mix a debt crisis that’s threatening to cripple emerging markets. In the words of a former International Monetary Fund official earlier this month, “We can see this train wreck coming towards us.”

In this week’s episode of Stephanomics, Washington-based reporter Eric Martin explores a burgeoning economic crisis in the developing world, one exacerbated by the debt loads assumed by low-income nations as they try to cope with the coronavirus. In Tunis, a mother of two children relates how she comes away empty-handed when out searching for sugar and oil; and in Rio de Janeiro, a market vendor shares his struggle to buy vegetables in a nation with 12% inflation. All told, 60% of low-income countries are in debt distress or at high risk of it, according to the World Bank.

In a follow-up discussion on the crisis, Tim Adams, chief executive of the Institute of International Finance, tells host Stephanie Flanders about the particular risks facing Turkey and Egypt, both heavily dependent on food imports and reeling from fallout from the war. Finally, in a dispatch from France, reporters share why President Emmanuel Macron has precious little time to celebrate his victory over far-right opponent Marine Le Pen.