WASHINGTON - Currently, 19 countries are either high risk or in debt distress, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The distressed debt countries as of August are Congo Brazzaville, Ghana, Malawi, São Tomé and Príncipe, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
The IMF warns that the region’s debt-to-GDP ratio levels are currently already at high levels on average, at nearly 60%, and will continue to trend upward by more than 10 percentage points over the next five years.
“If fiscal policy is not adjusted, debt vulnerabilities could rise further and push many countries to the edge of the cliff,” it says.
