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Hurricanes Are Trapping Small Island Nations in Ever-Worsening Spirals of Debt
Damage from tropical storms like Beryl saddles islands with debt, which they have no hope of clearing before the next storm hits.
By the time Beryl arrived, Grenada had already spent 20 years recovering from Hurricane Ivan (2004), a disaster that cost a staggering 200 percent of GDP and precipitated a debt crisis. Disaster funds have been dusted off in Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, alongside public appeals for cash donations to restore services, but support will be insufficient, and governments will have to take on yet more debt for rebuilding. And, as our work demonstrates, rich countries can provide immediate debt service cancellation (not deferment) after a shock of Beryl’s magnitude, to free up valuable fiscal space for relief and reconstruction.
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