The newly created Borrowers’ Platform aims to facilitate knowledge-sharing and capacity-building among debtor countries, while amplifying their voices in global financial circles. But at a time when the Paris Club of sovereign creditors is increasingly unable to act collectively, the Borrowers’ Platform should ramp up its ambition.
BANGKOK—For seven decades, some of the world’s biggest official creditors have coordinated their positions in negotiations with debtor countries struggling with repayment. The Paris Club has sought not only to tackle debt treatment for individual sovereigns, but also to shape the rules governing bailouts and conditionality, largely by leveraging its 22 permanent members’ influence at the International Monetary Fund. Now, the world’s debtors have created a club of their own. The question is whether its stated goals are sufficiently ambitious.
