Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate his Department has made of the amount of (a) interest and (b) principal on debt paid by low income countries to private creditors in 2020.

The UK, alongside the G20 and the Paris Club of official creditors has committed to a temporary suspension of debt payments for any country that is IDA-eligible or on the UN’s list of Least Developed Countries. As of 13 November 2020, 46 countries have requested to benefit from the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI), amounting to an estimated USD 5.7bn of 2020 debt service deferral.

Beneficiary countries commit to use the freed-up resources to increase social, health or economic spending in response to the Covid-19 crisis. This will be monitored by the IMF and World Bank.

Where requested by the borrowing government, we strongly encourage private creditors to suspend debt service payments, in line with the Terms of Reference for Voluntary Private Sector Participation developed by the Institute of International Finance (IIF).

Beyond the DSSI, the UK is strongly supportive of the implementation of the Common Framework for future debt treatments which will facilitate quicker and simpler restructurings where required, with fair burden sharing between all official and private sector creditors.