United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has warned that "half our world is sinking into a development disaster, fueled by a crushing debt crisis," and called for urgent fiscal relief.
The Covid-19 pandemic, the cost-of-living crisis and the war in Ukraine have pushed 165 million people into poverty since 2020, reports the United Nations, calling for a pause in debt repayments for developing countries.
Half of humanity lives in countries that are forced to spend more on servicing their debt than on health and education, which is nothing less than a development disaster, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.
The number of people going hungry in the world has risen by 122 million to 735 million since 2019 because of the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, the UN has said.
