Open letter to finance ministers
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Global business, workers and civil society have united in a call for emergency debt relief to enable developing countries to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the institutional representative of over 45 million businesses, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the global voice of the world’s working people, and Global Citizen, a movement of engaged citizens who use their collective voice to end extreme poverty by 2030, have urged Finance Ministers to use next week’s Spring Meetings of the World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund to ensure sovereign debt does not stymie efforts to combat COVID-19.
With many developing countries now facing a decision to either service sovereign debt obligations or pay to safeguard the lives and livelihoods of their citizens, the letter calls on finance ministers to provide immediate relief from debt servicing obligations and fund the Catastrophe Containment Relief Trust.
