The world is not on the verge of a full-blown debt crisis, but there should be concern over rising borrowing distress and creditor groups should come together to help low and middle-income countries restructure their debt piles, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund has said.
“We should be concerned … but we are not at the footsteps of a debt crisis,” Kristalina Georgieva told a seminar on the sideline of the IMF and World Bank annual meetings in Marrakesh on Thursday.
“Why we should be concerned? Because over the last years, governments, households [and] businesses had to borrow to sustain their function and debt everywhere has piled up higher.”
Global debt jumped significantly after the coronavirus pandemic, especially in emerging and developing economies.
Most of these nations were already struggling with higher levels of debt and a slower pace of growth. The additional debt from Covid-19 added to their significant economic vulnerabilities.
Last year, global debt hit $235 trillion, about $200 billion higher than 2021 levels, and stayed above its “already high pre-pandemic level”, the IMF said in a report in September.
Total debt stood at 238 per cent of global gross domestic product last year, 9 percentage points higher than in 2019. With global borrowing likely to rise in the medium term, the fund urged governments to take measure to reduce their debt vulnerabilities
Aggregate global debt climbed by $8.3 trillion in the first three months of 2023, the Institute of International Finance said in its Global Debt Monitor report in May.
At almost $305 trillion, it was a shade under the $306 trillion recorded in the first quarter of 2022, the institute added.
The increase marked the second consecutive quarterly jump in global borrowing, following two quarters of sharp decline during rapid monetary policy tightening last year in countries around the world.
Most severely hit are low-income countries, where half are either in distress or near distress, and emerging market economies where about 20 per cent are now in distressed territory, Ms Georgieva told delegates.
Ajay Banga, president of the World Bank, said countries in the sub-Saharan Africa are currently paying 7.6 per cent of their GDP to pay down their debt.
“For comparison, the spend on education and health care together is 5.6 per cent, so 7.6 per cent is a lot, therefore, for the [region],” he said.
However, “the impression that debt is bad” is not correct – the problem is in the handling of the debt “in a form that is not quite realistic, that gets you into real trouble”, he added.
The borrowing burden of developing countries in particular has hit unsustainable levels that require durable solutions including cancellation of the debt piles of some of the poorest nations, the G24 said in a press conference earlier this week in Marrakesh.
The international government group of 24 developing nations also called on the IMF and World Bank to help bring down public debt levels that are stifling growth in some countries.
“We call for immediate global action to assist developing countries to managing their escalating debt vulnerabilities,” said Adama Coulibaly, Ivory Coast’s Minister of Economy and Finance, who is also the chairman of G24.
The G20 common framework that allows lower- and middle-income countries to restructure their debt also calls for the cancellation of debt burden of the poorest and most vulnerable countries. Currently, most of the debt of these nations is owed to multilateral development banks, he said.
Debt restructuring depends on circumstances of each individual country as well as the group of creditors, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Finance Mohammed Al Jadaan said.
“I think it [the common framework] is working,” he said. “It is frustrating that it's not working better, obviously.”
He added that the global community and lender groups should work with China, which has emerged as one of the biggest lenders in Africa, to help poor nations restructure their debt.
China stepped up when no one else did and lent in Africa when others stayed away, Mr Al Jadaan said, adding that it had built infrastructure that it cannot carry back to China, and so has engaged in lending for its own benefit as well as that of the African people.
“I think we should appreciate that,” he said. “We [should] just work with them. We should just show them love … and try to make the common framework work.”
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Company profile
Company: Eighty6
Date started: October 2021
Founders: Abdul Kader Saadi and Anwar Nusseibeh
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Hospitality
Size: 25 employees
Funding stage: Pre-series A
Investment: $1 million
Investors: Seed funding, angel investors
Timeline
2012-2015
The company offers payments/bribes to win key contracts in the Middle East
May 2017
The UK SFO officially opens investigation into Petrofac’s use of agents, corruption, and potential bribery to secure contracts
September 2021
Petrofac pleads guilty to seven counts of failing to prevent bribery under the UK Bribery Act
October 2021
Court fines Petrofac £77 million for bribery. Former executive receives a two-year suspended sentence
December 2024
Petrofac enters into comprehensive restructuring to strengthen the financial position of the group
May 2025
The High Court of England and Wales approves the company’s restructuring plan
July 2025
The Court of Appeal issues a judgment challenging parts of the restructuring plan
August 2025
Petrofac issues a business update to execute the restructuring and confirms it will appeal the Court of Appeal decision
October 2025
Petrofac loses a major TenneT offshore wind contract worth €13 billion. Holding company files for administration in the UK. Petrofac delisted from the London Stock Exchange
November 2025
180 Petrofac employees laid off in the UAE
Company Profile
Name: JustClean
Based: Kuwait with offices in other GCC countries
Launch year: 2016
Number of employees: 130
Sector: online laundry service
Funding: $12.9m from Kuwait-based Faith Capital Holding
Wicked: For Good
Director: Jon M Chu
Starring: Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, Ethan Slater
Rating: 4/5
The Bloomberg Billionaire Index in full
1 Jeff Bezos $140 billion
2 Bill Gates $98.3 billion
3 Bernard Arnault $83.1 billion
4 Warren Buffett $83 billion
5 Amancio Ortega $67.9 billion
6 Mark Zuckerberg $67.3 billion
7 Larry Page $56.8 billion
8 Larry Ellison $56.1 billion
9 Sergey Brin $55.2 billion
10 Carlos Slim $55.2 billion
White hydrogen: Naturally occurring hydrogen
Chromite: Hard, metallic mineral containing iron oxide and chromium oxide
Ultramafic rocks: Dark-coloured rocks rich in magnesium or iron with very low silica content
Ophiolite: A section of the earth’s crust, which is oceanic in nature that has since been uplifted and exposed on land
Olivine: A commonly occurring magnesium iron silicate mineral that derives its name for its olive-green yellow-green colour
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$1,000 award for 1,000 days on madrasa portal
Daily cash awards of $1,000 dollars will sweeten the Madrasa e-learning project by tempting more pupils to an education portal to deepen their understanding of math and sciences.
School children are required to watch an educational video each day and answer a question related to it. They then enter into a raffle draw for the $1,000 prize.
“We are targeting everyone who wants to learn. This will be $1,000 for 1,000 days so there will be a winner every day for 1,000 days,” said Sara Al Nuaimi, project manager of the Madrasa e-learning platform that was launched on Tuesday by the Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, to reach Arab pupils from kindergarten to grade 12 with educational videos.
“The objective of the Madrasa is to become the number one reference for all Arab students in the world. The 5,000 videos we have online is just the beginning, we have big ambitions. Today in the Arab world there are 50 million students. We want to reach everyone who is willing to learn.”
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COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: Letstango.com
Started: June 2013
Founder: Alex Tchablakian
Based: Dubai
Industry: e-commerce
Initial investment: Dh10 million
Investors: Self-funded
Total customers: 300,000 unique customers every month
The specs: Fenyr SuperSport
Price, base: Dh5.1 million
Engine: 3.8-litre twin-turbo flat-six
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
Power: 800hp @ 7,100pm
Torque: 980Nm @ 4,000rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 13.5L / 100km
Quick pearls of wisdom
Focus on gratitude: And do so deeply, he says. “Think of one to three things a day that you’re grateful for. It needs to be specific, too, don’t just say ‘air.’ Really think about it. If you’re grateful for, say, what your parents have done for you, that will motivate you to do more for the world.”
Know how to fight: Shetty married his wife, Radhi, three years ago (he met her in a meditation class before he went off and became a monk). He says they’ve had to learn to respect each other’s “fighting styles” – he’s a talk it-out-immediately person, while she needs space to think. “When you’re having an argument, remember, it’s not you against each other. It’s both of you against the problem. When you win, they lose. If you’re on a team you have to win together.”
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