Debt campaigners hail UN vote as breakthrough

United Nations general assembly agrees set of principles on debt restructuring, although US, UK and Germany vote against

The United Nations general assembly has approved a set of principles to resolve disputes between bankrupt countries and their creditors that the former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis said would have "avoided the pitfalls of the Greek crisis".

The vote, with 136 supporting the scheme to six against, and 41 abstentions, comes after years of lobbying by Argentina and latterly Greece for a debt restructuring process to shield them from draconian cutbacks and reforms that threaten their political and economic stability.