CAIRO—The debt situation for poor countries could worsen due to volatile commodity prices and higher interest rates, World Bank President David Malpass said on Thursday, urging countries to begin a gradual fiscal consolidation to maintain investor confidence.
As of mid-2021, over half of the world’s poorest countries “are in external debt distress, or at risk of it,” Malpass said in a speech from the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, ahead of World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual meetings in mid-October.
