Massive Debt Wave Threatens to Engulf Developing Economies: World Bank

A man talks on his mobile phone in front of a currency exchange bureau advertisement showing images of the U.S. dollar in Cairo, Egypt, on Dec. 17, 2019. Reuters/Amr Abdallah Dalsh

World Bank officials warn that developing country debt has piled up bigger and faster than in any period of the last fifty years and could come crashing down on a fragile global economy.

A World Bank report published Thursday (pdf) highlights the “striking” surge in debt in emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs), which report authors call the “largest, fastest and most broad-based in EMDEs in the past 50 years.”