A/RES/67/198
External debt sustainability and development
situations, and encourages Member States, the Bretton Woods institutions, the
regional development banks and other relevant multilateral financial institutions and
stakeholders to continue the ongoing discussions on this issue, inter alia, within the
framework of the initiative of the United Nations Conference on Trade and
Development to promote responsible sovereign lending and borrowing;
Recognizes the role played by the Debt Sustainability Framework for
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Low-Income Countries, jointly developed by the International Monetary Fund and
the World Bank, to guide borrowing and lending decisions, notes the recent review
of the Framework, and encourages the continued periodic review of the Framework
in an open and transparent manner and with the full engagement of borrower and
creditor Governments;
Reiterates that no single indicator should be used to make definitive
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judgements about a country’s debt sustainability, and, in this regard, while
acknowledging the need to use transparent and comparable indicators, invites the
International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, in their assessment of debt
sustainability, to continue to take into account a country’s structural weaknesses and
the fundamental changes caused by, inter alia, natural disasters, conflicts and
changes in global growth prospects or in the terms of trade, especially for
commodity-dependent developing countries, as well as by the impact of
developments on financial markets, and to provide information on this issue to
Member States, using the appropriate frameworks;
Recognizes that the long-term sustainability of debt depends on, inter alia,
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economic growth, mobilization of national and international resources, export
prospects of debtor countries, responsible debt management, sound macroeconomic
policies, transparent and effective regulatory frameworks and success in overcoming
structural development problems, and hence on the creation of an enabling
international environment that is conducive to development;
Also recognizes the enormity and the multidimensional nature of the
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world financial and economic crisis, which caused a sharp deterioration of the debt
ratios in several developing countries, stresses the need to continue to assist
developing countries in avoiding a build-up of unsustainable debt so as to reduce the
risk of relapsing into another debt crisis, notes in this regard the additional resources
made available during and since the crisis through the International Monetary Fund
and the multilateral development banks, and calls for the continued provision of
concessional and grant-based financing to low-income countries to enable them to
respond to the consequences of the crisis;
Further recognizes the roles of the United Nations and the international
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financial institutions in accordance with their respective mandates, and encourages
them to continue to support global efforts towards sustained, inclusive and equitable
growth, sustainable development and the external debt sustainability of developing
countries, including through continued monitoring of global financial flows and
their implications in this regard;
Emphasizes the need for coordinated policies aimed at fostering debt
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financing, debt relief and debt restructuring, recalls in this regard the improvement
of the lending framework of the International Monetary Fund through, inter alia,
streamlined conditions and the creation of more flexible instruments, such as a
precautionary and liquidity line, while noting that new and ongoing programmes
should not contain unwarranted procyclical conditionalities, and urges the
multilateral development banks to continue to move forward on flexible,
concessional, fast-disbursing and front-loaded assistance that will substantially and
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