Poor country debt: A never-ending story?

Although the 'debt crisis' no longer threatens the international financial system, many low-income countries are still struggling with large debt overhangs. A combination of strong domestic reform programmes and commercial debt relief and restructuring under the Brady plan has improved the situations of Latin American and other middle-income debtor countries. However, no transformation is in sight for severely indebted low-income countries (SILICs). The purposes of this paper are to describe the progress made with the debt problems of these countries, to analyse the present situation and to survey the options now open to creditors.