Debt crisis

Left Strategy in the Time of the IMF Counter-Revolution

30 May 2023 - by Devaka Gunawardena

Less than a year has passed since the 9th July uprising last year in Sri Lanka. Nevertheless, the contours of the present regime are well established. A loose network of progressive activists and trade unions have rightly kept the basic (...)
Greece: another chapter

22 May 2023 - by Michael Roberts

The Greek election results validate Michael Roberts’ analysis and projections. Unfortunately, the right has triumphed because Syriza is not a real alternative [ed.]. Greece has a general election today. The conservative New Democracy party (...)
Debt : Eric Toussaint at Université Paris Cité on January 31, 2023

20 May 2023 - by Eric Toussaint

Eric Toussaint, spokesperson for CADTM International, spoke on the debt crisis and the global capitalist system at the Economic Policies for Global Transition (EPOG) seminars. The seminar was held at the Université Paris Cité on January 31, (...)
Pakistan’s debt from China becomes burden as CPEC does not generate enough growth

16 May 2023 - by Abdul Khaliq

Since 2013, Pakistan’s historical relationship with China has taken on a geopolitical role through the launch of the China-led infrastructure connectivity project, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a key part of the Belt and Road (...)
Resisting the Shock Doctrine: Ukraine, Debt, and Reconstruction

12 May 2023 - by Eric Toussaint, Sushovan Dhar, Ashley Smith, Yuliya Yurchenko

A discussion of Ukrainians’ struggle to cancel their country’s debt as part of the global movement against neoliberalism. In the midst of Russia’s imperialist war, Ukraine’s left, unions, and popular movements have struggled to cancel their (...)
Pakistan Collapsing

9 April 2023 - by Farooq Tariq

Pakistan is facing one of the worst economic and political crises at present. The political crisis is best manifested by the fact that almost half the members of the National Assembly (the lower house of the parliament) have resigned, while two (...)
Éric Toussaint, “The IMF and the WB bear a great responsibility in weakening countries that have to face external shocks”

5 April 2023 - by Dora Villanueva

After three years of Covid-19 pandemic, the world is facing “a genuine international debt crisis (…) nearly 80 countries of the South are close to defaulting” or are actually defaulting, Éric Toussaint, spokesperson for the Committee for the (...)
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 (...)