China helps growth and debt sustainability in Africa through debt relief, infrastructure investment and higher exports. China and other emerging lenders should engage in a debt transparency initiative that considers such growth effects. This will encourage emerging lenders to co-operate with the...

Over recent years, a number of emerging creditors have increased their aid and lending to Africa’s Low-Income Countries (LICs). This has fed worries that new official lenders may be undoing years of international efforts to rein in over-indebtedness in Africa, to reduce the continent’s...

Cancelling of poor-country debt does not mean that the best way to give aid is through grants only. Aid through loans may often prove superior, provided that it maintains debt sustainability. A new scheme for soft loans is suggested, with higher interest rates and cancellation provisions if bad...

The Brady Initiative has led to the conclusion of several debt-relief agreements. Opinion on the effects of these agreements on the debtor countries involved vary widely. The following article aims at clarifying the debate.

Investment in most heavily indebted countries has been weak since 1982. The widely accepted debt overhang proposition interprets the investment drop as a moral hazard problem: a heavy debt burden raises the incentive to consume, because the marginal benefit of investment would go to the...