Debt (un)sustainability in Pakistan on FT Alphaville by Murtaza Syed ft.com/content/cd97e0…

Interesting Africa Report piece on Afrexim's efforts to get Preferred Creditor Status in debt restructurings. The IMF said it "does not determine or grant preferred creditor status" - but has previously said it classifies Afrexim as a commercial creditor theafricareport.com/356219/under-f…

“[President] revealed Chinese gov’t had agreed to defer the repayment of loans & accrued interest [to #Maldives ] issued by China EXIM Bank for 5 years” presidency.gov.mv/Press/Article/…

This is part of a general withdrawal of French banks from Africa (West in particular), mostly due to Basel 3 and political crisis. After BPCE and BNP, now SoGen. When it comes to local sovereign debt, their space is taken by pan-African and Moroccan banks

The swap was announced long ago and markets have full anticipated the buyback, so -unless non-marketable debt is targeted - any net saving is likely to come mostly from the MDBs' subsidy. "Risk is like energy: it cannot be destroyed, only shifted from one place to another"

Very happy to share my latest blog authored jointly with my World Bank colleague Pablo Saavedra explaining why now is the time to help countries faced with liquidity challenges. imf.org/en/Blogs/Artic…

New WB/IMF Debt for Development Swap Framework is out, alongside longer WB technical note. Short🧵

Here is a chart that can help the swap decision making process:

The discussions highlight how cash and revenue-strapped African nations are turning to traders for funding to boost producing assets and energy supplies. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Ukraine / Launch of Eurobond exchange offer for the sovereign and Ukravtodor notes. Interesting level of detail in the Comparability of Treatment analysis. londonstockexchange.com/news-article/P…

Thought-provoking proposal. Since any asymmetric VRI involves an extra-compensation to creditors / "waste" for borrowers (here the prepayment at 100 of bond trading at 60), and assuming this nudge is needed (big if), the challenge is finding the most effective way of providing it

"Cat bonds are “for tail events,” which are rare disasters outside the norm, said Michael Bennett, head of derivatives and structured finance at the World Bank treasury. “The parameter isn’t the fine print, it is the print.” finance.yahoo.com/news/huge-prof…

1/4 CRDC update: Grenada has become the first country to trigger its CRDC/debt pause clause in an international bond following Hurricane Beryl. this means it will not make the bond's next two scheduled payments due on Nov and May next year Emily Wilkinson Celine Tan [email protected]

Ukrainian domestic "military bonds", for residents and non-residents. Each bond is named after an occupied town militarybonds.diia.gov.ua

1/ 📢To VRI or not to VRI? That is the question New Finance for Development Lab policy note Geneva Graduate Institute Centre for Finance and Development Martin Kessler Ishac Diwan Dani Rodrik Theo Maret Diego Rivetti Robin Wigglesworth Anna Gelpern Layna Mosley 🧵

Good explanation, but the all-in-cost of the blue loan (never disclosed) is likely to be at least 150 bps higher than the bond one -so approx. 7.5%- and the retired bonds were trading below 10% at the time of the buyback (the 2025 at 8%)

Only 2% of US green bond proceeds initiate projects with clearly novel green features, and well over one third just goes to repay old debts. ft.com/content/4796ae…

#HiddenDebtRevelations! How reliable are public debt stats? Our working paper with S. Horn, Philipp Nickol, Cesar Sosa Padilla is out today analyzing hidden sovereign debts across 146 countries and 53 years. Let’s dive in! ⬇️