Private sector needs to "come to the table" with debt relief - Ghana fin min
LONDON, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Private sector creditors must "come to the table" and join an extended G20 debt service suspension initiative, Ghana's finance minister and chairman of a group of low-income countries said on Tuesday.
Kenneth Ofori-Atta said the private sector needed to support the debt restructuring effort after the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI), which has since April helped more than 40 developing world nations defer at least $5 billion in official debt payments.
"The private sector should come to the table to participate in this unprecedented turn of events globally," he said at a press briefing at the IMF on Tuesday.
"There's a need for us to sit at the table with them, to look at a restructuring of debt that EMDCs have. I think that's the challenge that we need to take because these are unprecedented times."
In a statement, the G24 group of developing nations urged richer G20 nations to extend debt relief for the poorest countries, streamline debt resolution and guarantee equal access to a coronavirus vaccine or risk a "lost development decade. (Reporting by Tom Arnold and Elizabeth Howcroft; editing by Marc Jones)