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The Graphic Truth: Developing countries' deadly debt trap

The head of the IMF has already warned that the state of the global economy is "worse than our already pessimistic projections." But while the pandemic is taking a huge economic toll on every country in the world, many emerging-market economies, which currently owe a collective $8.4 trillion in foreign debt, face a particularly grim tradeoff between paying their bondholders or funding their hospitals. Even before the coronavirus crisis, 64 countries spent more money annually servicing their external debt payments than they did on healthcare. Now, the global health emergency is taxing their underfunded healthcare systems, complicating attempts to contain the virus. Many countries have already pleaded for emergency debt relief. Here's a look at the countries that spend more on annual debt servicing than on healthcare.

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South Korean President Lee Jae Myung leaves after giving a speech on the Government's first supplemetary budget bill of 2026 at the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, 02 April 2026.
JEON HEON-KYUN/Pool via REUTERS

South Korea's President Lee Jae-myung's Democratic Party is poised to win 11 of 16 municipal races, a reversal from four years ago when the now-disgraced PPP dominated. But Lee’s surging popularity has foreign policy ramifications.

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