Instead, they focused exclusively on US foreign debt, ignoring household debt (mortgage and consumer debt), public debt, business debt, and financial debt.

Government debt service has in general become easier, owing to low interest rates.

74. As for the multilateral debt, IMF disagreed with the Secretary General apos s view that, even after debt relief measures, a significant number of countries would be left with unsustainable debt burdens.

One difficulty that has been a focus of earlier reports on the external debt crisis and development is the general underestimation of the amount of debt relief needed to eliminate the debt overhang.

In general, the Gulf Cooperation Council countries maintain low or modest external debt stocks and debt to GDP ratios and have accumulated substantial foreign assets.

Debt sustainability and debt relief

Report of the Secretary General on the external debt crisis and development (A 60 139)

B. External debt and debt relief

To move forward, the Secretary General has proposed that debt sustainability be redefined as the level of debt that allows a country to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 without an increase in its debt ratios.

Debt difficulties remain, however, in particular in poorer countries, as analysed in the report of the Secretary General on the external debt crisis and development also being presented to the General Assembly at its forty ninth session.

To move forward, the Secretary General proposed that debt sustainability should be redefined as the level of debt that allowed a country to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and reach 2015 without an increase in its debt ratios.

Against the backdrop of better growth and export prospects in developing countries in general, the recent trends revealed a smaller accumulation of debt and lower debt service burden.

However, the general improvement masks exceptions, as individual countries are still facing large unsustainable debt burdens.

See report of the Secretary General entitled External debt crisis and development (A 59 219), paras.

More debt relief encompassing more countries and more debt (including bilateral debt) is needed.

Debt

Such a debt strategy should include debt cancellation.

That high level meeting on the debt crisis of developing countries, which I attended together with Ministers from twenty five heavily debt distressed, least developed countries, endorsed a number of general principles for debt reduction, which represent a significant step in the search for a lasting solution to the debt problem.

On the subject of external debt, Central America endorses what the Secretary General says in his report

50. As the Secretary General had rightly pointed out in his report on the developing country debt situation (A 49 338), too many countries still faced acute debt servicing problems.

Debt reduction should cover a greater proportion of the debt, in certain cases the total debt.

The debt strategy should include, among other things, a drastic reduction of debt and debt servicing.

B. External debt and debt relief . 27 32 10

Innovative forms of debt relief, including debt for equity swaps, debt for social development swaps, and debt for environment swaps, could be widely utilized.

Unsustainable private debt problems must be resolved by defaults, debt reductions, and conversion of debt into equity.

The resolution, moreover, calls for the treatment of multilateral debt to alleviate debt and debt service burdens.

1. Takes note of the report of the Secretary General on the external debt and debt servicing problems of developing countries, including those resulting from global financial instability A 56 262.

Taking note of the report of the Secretary General on external debt crisis and development,A 57 253.

(a) Report of the Secretary General on the international debt strategy as of mid 1993 (A 48 345)

External debt

External debt

Debt relief

External debt

What debt?

The country simply cannot keep on piling debt upon debt.

We are not asking for debt forgiveness or debt cancellation.

Total concessional debt as a percentage of total external debt

But this is debt. 80 million of debt right here.

The debt restructuring measures had dealt primarily with commercial debt and debt servicing obligations to official bilateral creditors.

36. The report of the Secretary General on the international debt strategy as of mid 1993 (A 48 345) complemented the documents of the World Bank and IMF on the issue and contained many pertinent comments especially on the international debt strategy and debt indicators.

2. In his report on debt (A 49 338), the Secretary General called for a change in the standard arrangements dealing with debt relief in the context of the Paris Club. Such arrangements had provided temporary relief but had not removed the debt overhang.

The debt relief measures had not benefited a large number of countries overburdened with debt repayment and debt servicing.

International policy in this regard has evolved considerably, as previous reports of the Secretary General on debt have described.

23 See Report of the Secretary General on the international debt strategy as of mid 1993 (A 48 345).

(a) Report of the Secretary General on the developing country debt situation as of mid 1994 (A 49 338)