Debt, how far?

The 27 European leaders at an EU summit on December 15, 2017, in Brussels.

(Illustrative image) © JOHN THYS / AFP

By: Jean-Pierre Boris Follow

2 min

Beyond the controversial debates on the cancellation or not of the debt contracted by the European Central Bank for the benefit of Europeans, the question of the future of the debt born of the Covid-19 pandemic arises.

Publicity

To cope with the economic crisis inherited from the Coronavirus pandemic, rich countries are stepping up stimulus plans.

To finance them, they go into debt on the financial markets.

As for the poor countries, they seek help from multilateral institutions and sometimes admit to being unable to meet their deadlines.

Depending on whether you are rich or poor, debt is the solution or the problem.

But you have to be reckoned with.

Hence this show.

Agnès Bénassy-Quéré

 is Chief Economist at the Directorate General of the Treasury, within the Ministry of Finance in Paris.

This position led her to take leave from the Paris School of Economics and the University of Paris 1 where she previously taught. 

Ishac Diwan

 is Professor of Economics at the École normale supérieure in Paris.

He is also director of the Socio-economics of the Arab world chair at the University of Paris Sciences et Lettres.

Salif Cherif Sy

 is Professor of Economics at the Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar and a former member of the Senegalese President's cabinet, with the rank of Minister.

Today he coordinates the World Forum of Alternatives.

Newsletter

Receive all international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_FR

  • Economy

  • Economic crisis

  • Finance

  • Coronavirus

On the same subject

Today the economy

Covid debt cancellation: the new debate that is igniting Europe

Eco from here eco from elsewhere

The explosion of European public debts

Faced with Covid-19, European countries are running into debt, Germany included