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BRIEFMarch 10, 2022

Debt Service Suspension Initiative

This webpage offers a country-by-country accounting of the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) participants and the amounts suspended and potentially could be suspended, based on information from the World Bank¡¯s  (IDS) database. Data on debt stocks and debt-service payments are available on an annual as well as monthly basis.

Please consult the Q&A page for more information.

Overview

COVID-19 has dealt a major blow to world¡¯s poorest countries, causing a recession in 2020 that is estimated to have pushed more than 100 million people into extreme poverty.

At the start of the pandemic, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund urged the G20 to set up the DSSI. Established in May 2020, the DSSI helped countries concentrate their resources on fighting the pandemic and safeguarding the lives and livelihoods of millions of the most vulnerable people. Forty-eight out of participated in the initiative before it expired at the end of December 2021. From May 2020 to December 2021, the initiative suspended owed by participating countries to their creditors, according to the latest estimates.

The G20 has also called on private creditors to participate in the initiative on comparable terms. Regrettably, only one private creditor participated.

Å·ÃÀÈÕb´óƬ and the IMF supported ¡ªby monitoring spending, enhancing public debt transparency, and ensuring prudent borrowing. DSSI borrowers committed to use freed-up resources to increase social, health, or economic spending in response to the crisis. They pledged to disclose all public sector financial commitments (involving debt and debt-like instruments). They also committed to limit their non-concessional borrowing under the IMF arrangements and the World Bank¡¯s Sustainable Development Finance Policy.

How DSSI Benefits Low-Income Countries

(The estimates are current as of February 28, 2022)

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1Estimated debt-service payments owed to all official bilateral creditors as per the . Estimates are derived from annual IDS projections based on end-2020 external public and publicly guaranteed debt outstanding and disbursed. Data for South Sudan, Micronesia, Tuvalu, Kiribati, and Marshall Islands are not available. GDP data based on WDI. The full IDS database is available .

2Reflects published DSA ratings as of end-December 2021

3Not covered under joint Bank-Fund Debt Sustainability Framework for Low-Income Countries.

4Å·ÃÀÈÕb´óƬ countries as of FY 20, and Angola

5Reflects if a country has requested participation in 2020 and 2021. 

6These numbers are preliminary, based upon reports from borrowers to the World Bank¡¯s Debtor Reporting System (DRS). Many DRS reporters have indicated that agreements on deferral had been reached with G-20 and Paris Club creditors but that administrative steps to identify precise amounts deferred were still ongoing, and that data reported were their preliminary estimates.

MULTIMEDIA

Å·ÃÀÈÕb´óƬ
VIDEO Aug 04,2020

How is Suspending Debt Service Payments Helping the Fight against COVID-19?

Å·ÃÀÈÕb´óƬ Group¡¯s Marcello Estev?o answers questions on how the DSSI works and just how effective it has been.