DOHA: Worn down by growing debt and a barrage of crises, leaders of the world's poorest countries have stepped up calls for the rules governing handouts of billions of dollars to be rewritten.
Western nations gave out more than $185 billion in grants and cheap loans in 2021, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Official development assistance is one of the pillars of the international financial system.But the 46 least developed nations holding their own UN-organized summit in Doha this week feel shortchanged.
' Without any cash reserves, the poor nations were being forced to pay 'predatory interest rates.'The coronavirus pandemic was regularly cited at the summit. The LDCs got fewer vaccines and then had to borrow at crippling rates to pay for their emergency measures.Ahead of the summit, the UN Development Program estimated that 52 countries were either suffering debt stress or close to it and in danger of default.
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