紐時賞析／世界銀行：利率飆升 開發中國家債臺高築情勢惡化

世界銀行發佈一份報告，稱全球最脆弱經濟體自新冠疫情以來面臨的危險狀態，通貨膨脹率飆升，使開發中國家去年揹負1.4兆美元的創紀錄債務清償成本。路透

Developing Nations Need Debt Relief, Report Warns

利率飆升 開發中國家債臺高築情勢惡化

Soaring inflation saddled developing countries with a record $1.4 trillion in debt servicing costs last year, the World Bank said in a report published Tuesday, detailing the precarious state faced by the world’s most vulnerable economies since the pandemic.

世界銀行週二發佈一份報告，稱全球最脆弱經濟體自新冠疫情以來面臨的危險狀態，通貨膨脹率飆升，使開發中國家去年揹負1.4兆美元的創紀錄債務清償成本。

As central banks around the world raised interest rates to slow rising prices, poor countries with already high debt burdens saw the interest payments on the money that they owed to creditors balloon. While principal balances held steady at around $951 billion, interest payments jumped by a third, to $406 billion. That has left more countries facing fiscal crises and struggling to avoid default.

隨着世界各國中央銀行提高利率以減緩物價上漲，原本就揹負沉重債務負擔的貧窮國家，目睹他們積欠債權人款項的利息支出激增。儘管本金餘額穩定維持在約9510億美元，但利息支付增加三分之一，達4060億美元。這使更多國家面臨財政危機，努力掙扎避免違約。

“These facts imply a metastasizing solvency crisis that continues to be misdiagnosed as a liquidity problem in many of the poorest countries,” Indermit Gill, the World Bank’s chief economist, wrote in the report. “It is easy to kick the can down the road, to provide these countries just enough financing to help them meet their immediate repayment obligations. But that simply extends their purgatory.”

世界銀行首席經濟學家吉爾在報告中寫道：「這些事實暗示一場償付能力危機正在蔓延，這場危機在許多最貧窮的國家仍被誤判爲流動性問題。逃避問題很容易，也就是隻給這些國家足夠的資金，協助他們履行目前的還款義務。但這只是延長他們的痛苦。」

More than a dozen sovereign nations defaulted on their debt in the past three years, and more than 30 of the world’s poorest countries have experienced “debt distress,” according to the United Nations. In 2023, Belarus, Ghana, Lebanon, Sri Lanka and Zambia were all in default, according to Fitch Ratings.

聯合國指出，超過一打主權國家在過去三年拖欠債務，且超過30個世界最貧窮國家曾經歷「債務困擾」。國際信評機構惠譽國際指出，在2023年，白俄羅斯、迦納、黎巴嫩、斯里蘭卡和尚比亞都出現債務違約。

Global financial institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have been working with international lenders to help developing countries restructure their debt, but the process has been slow and painstaking.

世界銀行和國際貨幣基金等全球金融機構一直與國際貸款機構合作，協助開發中國家重組其債務，但這個過程緩慢而艱苦。

The IMF estimated that global public debt would exceed $100 trillion this year, and the World Bank has warned that poverty-reduction efforts have reached a standstill because of weak growth in poor countries that were hardest hit by the pandemic.

國際貨幣基金估計，今年全球公共債務會超過100兆美元，世界銀行警告，由於受新冠疫情影響最嚴重的貧窮國家經濟成長疲軟，這些國家的脫貧工作陷入停滯。

文／Alan Rappeport　譯／羅方妤