UN calls for $2.5tn emergency package for developing nations
Rich countries urged to help emerging economies cope with coronavirus 'financial tsunami'
The United Nations has called for a $2.5tn emergency package to help developing countries cope with the crippling impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on their vulnerable economies.
The UN said there was a "looming financial tsunami" and urged rich countries of the west to provide the sort of assistance for emerging economies as they were providing for themselves.
Symptoms are defined by the NHS as either:
A $1tn liquidity injection provided by the IMF. The fund has the ability to boost the reserves of member countries through special drawing rights and Unctad said these should be supplemented and allocated to help those countries left behind as a "kind of helicopter money drop".
A debt jubilee for distressed economies, with the immediate suspension of payments followed by significant debt relief. The UN said the template should be the debt relief that was provided for Germany after the second world war, and that $1tn should be cancelled this year.
A Marshall plan for a health recovery funded from some of the missing aid long promised but not delivered by rich countries. Unctad said an additional $500bn - a quarter of the last decade's missing overseas development assistance - largely in the form of grants, should be earmarked for emergency health services and related social relief programmes.
Capital controls to curtail the surge in capital outflows, to reduce illiquidity driven by selloffs in developing country markets, and to arrest declines in currency and asset prices.
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