The high debt burdens suffered by many developing countries that have seen their debts written down over recent years were not the consequence of high levels of borrowing. This has been convincingly argued by Todd Moss in a paper produced for The Centre for Global Development (CGD)ii . The high debt burdens have resulted from poor economic growth.
The idea that developing countries borrowed too much is characterised in the discussion over ‘odious debts’. An odious debt is a moral category that has come to take on pseudo economic meaning. Lists have been drawn up by Western NGOs and campaign groups determining the moral character of particular African governments over time. Debt taken on by governments deemed to be illegitimate are said to be odious.

The notion is that developing countries have had access to too much cash, and have frivolously run up debts – like global shopaholics developing countries have been unable to control their urges and have recklessly borrowed vast sums with little thought about how they could afford to pay their bills. Add a comment