Comité pour l'abolition des dettes illégitimes

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Debt crisis

Full version & Execcutive summary

Africa : the debt trap and how to get out of it

27 March 2023 - by CADTM

Study carried out by the CADTM, the Left Group in the European Parliament - The Left Executive summary and full version in pdf below. Africa was not long spared by the Covid-19 pandemic that submerged the world. The new virus first appeared (...)
“If You’re Not at the Table, You’re Probably on the Menu”

10 March 2023 - by Caroline Cornier

Africa, like the rest of the world, is in crisis. Yet Africa is particularly ill-equipped to deal with it, as it grapples with external public debt reaching new records at a time when the central banks of the countries of the North are (...)
Deal-or-default: Is it the endgame for Pakistan?

5 February 2023 - by Abdul Khaliq

The IMF mission is currently in Pakistan on a 10-day visit to discuss the stalled ninth review of the country’s current funding programme. The loan talks were restarted after the government finally yielded to IMF demands.Pakistan secured a $6 (...)
Ghana’s default, letter on Sri Lanka calling for debt cancellation and Pakistan doubly victimized

11 January 2023 - by Iolanda Fresnillo

Ghana suspended payments on most of their external debts on december 19th, a week after reaching an agreement with theIMF for a US$3bn loan. Ghana has, according to Reuters, reached out to the Paris Club for an “expedited” Common Framework debt (...)
India : debt, banking crisis,...

10 January 2023 - by Eric Toussaint, Sushovan Dhar

Sushovan Dhar is interviewed by Eric Toussaint about the debt situation and the banking crisis in India, and other topics. Eric Toussaint : In your presentation at the 9th CADTM South Asia Conference in Colombo you explained that India’s real (...)
Statement by academics on dealing with Sri Lankan debt

9 January 2023 - by Collective

Sri Lanka, along with many other low- and middle-income countries, has experienced a series of financial shocks due to both external and internal factors. Global forces have caused food and energy import costs to soar and interest rates to rise, (...)
Colombo Declaration

4 December 2022 - by CADTM

We, the participants of the 9th CADTM South Asia meeting from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, as well as from Morocco, Belgium, Spain and France, assembled in Colombo, Sri Lanka, from December 2–4, 2022, reaffirm our fight against (...)
CADTM South Asia workshop

25 November 2022 - by CADTM

Committee for Abolition if Illegitimate Debt (CADTM) South Asia Law & Society Trust (LST, Sri Lanka) and the Movement for National Land and Agricultural Reform (MONLAR, Sri Lanka) COLOMBO, FRIDAY 02 – SATURDAY 03 DECEMBER 2022 The (...)
Carrying the debt

13 November 2022 - by Sarala Emmanuel

Feminist Collective for Economic Justice Co-Founder, researcher, and activist Sarala Emmanuel says that the brunt of the economic crisis has been borne by women and the brunt of the recovery proposals will also be borne by women. Following is (...)
Gendering the debt crisis: Feminists on Sri Lanka’s financial crisis

13 November 2022 - by Bhumika Muchhala, Kanchana N Ruwanpura, Smriti Rao

Backdrop Countless images of women carers flitted through April-July 2022 on Sri Lankan television screens, social media, and newspapers. Carers with young children, mothers with new-borns leaving them with equally young children while they (...)
Double penalty for Pakistan drowning in floods and debts

5 September 2022 - by Abdul Khaliq

Pakistan’s devastating floods have so far, killed over 1200 people, mostly children, since 14 June 22, displaced around 33 million and eroded livelihoods with the loss of an estimated one million livestock. In addition, floods washed away at (...)
‘The Canary in the Coal Mine’: Sri Lanka’s Crisis is a Chronicle Foretold

7 August 2022 - by Eric Toussaint, Balasingham Skanthakumar

Sri Lanka’s acute economic crisis and sovereign debt default, along with its people’s uprising in 2022, has drawn attention across the world. It is described as the ‘canary in the coal mine’, that is, a harbinger of the likely future for other (...)
‘Weeks when decades happen’

28 July 2022 - by Balasingham Skanthakumar

“There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen”, as Lenin never actually said. The estrangement between the regime-state in Sri Lanka and its core constituencies, while widening over the course of the pandemic (...)
Sri Lanka’s Crisis is Endgame for Rajapaksas

11 July 2022 - by Balasingham Skanthakumar

Sri Lanka’s citizens’ movement known as the Janatha Aragalaya (‘Peoples’ Struggle’), notched its most significant victory yet, when Gotabaya Rajapaksa announced through the Speaker of Parliament that he would quit on 13th July, mid-way through his (...)
After a decline in movements against illegitimate debt between 2016 and 2022, will there be a resurgence in 2023?

6 July 2022 - by Eric Toussaint

The decline in “debt” movements between 2016 and 2022 The period 2016-2022 has been marked by a retreat in anti-illegitimate debt movements on a global scale with a few important exceptions: Argentina since 2020, Puerto Rico in 2017-2019, Lebanon (...)
Sri Lankan Uprising: Struggles against neoliberal austerity

10 June 2022 - by Nagesh Rao, Nimanthi Rajasingham

Sri Lanka is in the throes of political upheaval as a spiraling economic crisis has sparked widespread mass protests and strikes against the government. On May 9th, then prime minister, Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned and was forced to take refuge in (...)
The IMF in Debt Restructuring, the Resurgence of Austerity, and the Urgency of Fiscal Justice

27 May 2022 - by Bhumika Muchhala

As Sri Lanka officially defaults on its sovereign debt repayments, and enters negotiations with the International Monetary Fund for access to loans in return for structural macro-economic change in response to the ongoing economic crisis, the (...)
The making and masking of Sri Lanka’s debt crisis

17 May 2022 - by Matt Withers

Sri Lanka is in the grip of its worst economic crisis since Independence. Behind recent headlines, the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed structural problems that were decades in the making. The origins of today’s foreign exchange crisis are rooted in (...)
Is Sri Lanka burdened by ‘odious’ debt?

16 May 2022 - by Akalanka Thilakarathna

The current economic situation in the country can be linked to its political instability. While economic and political instability goes hand in hand, the current dilemma facing the country can be attributed to bad planning and decision making, (...)
Pakistan : Regime Change, Political Turmoil and Deepening Debt Crisis

3 May 2022 - by Abdul Khaliq

Pakistan has plunged into a major political crisis after the removal of Prime Minister Imran Khan on 10 April 22, through a successful no-confidence motion against the PTI govt. The month-long political crisis began on 8 March when the country’s (...)
The Argentinian (2001) and Sri Lankan (2022) Financial Crises: Ways Forward from a Feminist Perspective

27 April 2022 - by Corina Rodriguez

In response to Sri Lanka’s ongoing economic crisis, and the consensus across the political spectrum and even social classes that an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bail-out and structural adjustment programme is the only short-to-medium term (...)
Why should Ukraine’s debt be cancelled?

21 April 2022 - by Eric Toussaint, Sushovan Dhar

Sushovan Dhar: How much is the Ukrainian public debt and who are the main creditors? Eric Toussaint: Ukraine’s external debt, public and private, is about $130 billion, half of this debt is owed by the government, and the other half by the (...)
Sri Lanka: No agreement with the IMF!

15 April 2022 - by Eric Toussaint, Sushovan Dhar

A Sri Lankan delegation will travel to Washington next week to try to secure up to $4 billion from the International Monetary Fund and other lenders to help the island nation pay for food and fuel imports as well as stem defaults on its debt. (...)
Argentine civil society denounces new IMF agreement as illegitimate

9 April 2022 - by Bretton Woods Project

As reported by Al Jazeera, the Argentine Senate voted on 18 March to proceed with a 30-month Extended Fund Facility (EFF) arrangement of $45 billion or 1000 per cent of the country’s quota. The programme was agreed upon days ahead of a payment of (...)
Frying Pan of Shortages to the Post-IMF Fire

4 April 2022 - by Ahilan Kadirgamar

The scorching heat in April and May is going to fry our working people as food and medicines are in short supply, oil shortages lead to transport disruption and power cuts shut down shop floors. What does one make of the mismanagement of an (...)