Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

News

The Graphic Truth: Developing countries' deadly debt trap

The Graphic Truth: Developing countries' deadly debt trap
Make us preferred on Google

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.

More For You

Thousands of people gather at the Palacio de Cibeles, seat of the Madrid City Council, in Madrid, Spain during demonstrations held outside city halls in autonomous communities across Spain in protest of the mass entry of migrants at the Ceuta border.

Thousands of people gather at the Palacio de Cibeles, seat of the Madrid City Council, in Madrid, Spain, on September 2, 2024, during demonstrations held outside city halls in autonomous communities across Spain in protest of the mass entry of migrants at the Ceuta border.

Aaron Heredia/NurPhoto
Immigration protests rock Spain Tens of thousands of people took to the streets across Spain on Wednesday in protest against Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s welcoming immigration policy and his handling of the immigration crisis in the North African Spanish enclave of Ceuta. In July, more than 70,000 people crossed into Ceuta from Morocco in the [...]
America’s expanding proletariat
Will Fitzpatrick
There is no official definition of “working class” – an economist might point to a certain income bracket or education level, while a Marxist might say it includes anyone who has to sell their labor to survive. But in the US now, the label seems to extend well beyond the traditional industrial proletariat – according to the poll, nearly half of [...]
A police officer in protective clothing walks next to an explosive-disarming robot (EOD) at Leipzig/Halle Airport.

A police officer in protective clothing walks next to an explosive-disarming robot (EOD) at Leipzig/Halle Airport in Schkeuditz, Germany, August 5, 2026

REUTERS/Axel Schmidt
Germany and EU to hit back at Russia over drone plot The German government has formally accused Russia of orchestrating a failed drone attack at Leipzig airport last month. The drone, which approached a cargo plane that was taking weapons to Ukraine, failed to explode as planned. In response, Berlin will shrink Russia’s diplomatic presence in [...]
China’s solar eclipse of the US
Will Fitzpatrick
China now produces more power via solar than coal for the first time ever, with rays of the sun accounting for more than 30% of the country’s total installed power generation, according to Chinese state TV. China, which remains the world’s leading overall greenhouse gas emitter, has leaned heavily into renewable energy installation and generation [...]