The high-level session held on Thursday at the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development in Seville, Spain. Photo courtesy of Ministry of Planning, Economic Development and International Cooperation.
The minister’s announcement came during the high-level session titled “Debt Solutions for Resilience and Reform: Financing the 2030 Agenda in Africa and Beyond,” held on Thursday during the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) in Seville, Spain.
The conference, held from 30 June to 3 July, aims to advance Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and support the reform of international financial architecture.
The session highlighted the growing debt burden on developing countries, according to a statement by the Ministry of Planning, Economic Development, and International Cooperation.
During the session, Al-Mashat noted that the external debt stock of low- and middle-income countries reached a record $8.8 trillion in 2023. Debt servicing costs totalled $1.4 trillion, nearly $1 trillion when excluding China, double the level from a decade ago.
"Over 60 percent of low-income countries are now in or near debt distress," Al-Mashat said.
Without policy intervention, global public debt is projected to surpass 100 percent of global GDP by 2030, she added.
Call to action
Minister Al-Mashat called for a more flexible global financial system and transparent, fair, and innovative approaches to sovereign debt, including responsible lending standards and the automatic suspension of debt during crises.
She stressed the need for a global platform to share expertise and provide technical support on innovative financing and debt swaps.
Additionally, Al-Mashat highlighted the need to update the Debt Sustainability Analysis for fairer assessments of countries’ repayment capacity.
She also called on multilateral development banks to expand the use of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), blended finance, and liquidity tools to address global challenges such as climate change.
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