French Finance Minister Bruno Lemerre called on Thursday to "avoid a tragedy" in developing countries, especially in Africa, proposing measures such as "freezing" the payment of debts.
"It is our responsibility to avoid a tragedy in developing countries, especially in Africa," the minister told a news conference a few days after he called on the G20 to take measures against countries that might find themselves in a difficult financial situation.
He stressed, "We support the freezing of the debts of the poorest countries in the coming months," noting that "the Paris Club, which has experience in these cases, should be a pioneer of this initiative."
He also pointed out that France supports "the idea of ​​special drawing rights from the International Monetary Fund with a value of up to $ 500 billion" and "the introduction of a new and fast line of credit to complete the line of exchange facilities with central banks to support countries that need them most."
Special drawing rights are a type of currency that the IMF has created, and its price changes according to a basket of hard currencies.
As for the lines of facilitating exchange, they are tools to protect against the risks of lack of liquidity in foreign currencies, and they are usually used for countries that borrow in dollars and devalue their currencies against the dollar, which makes paying off their debts more difficult.
The Covid-19 epidemic continues to spread rapidly on the African continent.
