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AID

Swedish aid money pays off third world debts

The aid organization Diakonia is criticizing the Swedish government for using aid money to pay off old debts that Congo and Togo – two very poor countries - owe Sweden from earlier.

Published: 15 July 2011 08:13 CEST
Swedish aid money pays off third world debts
Swedish minister for international development cooperation, Gunilla Carlsson.

But minister for international development cooperation, Gunilla Carlsson, is defending the practice.

“This isn’t something that we have started in recent days, it is part of a budget voted on and established by the Riksdag – it is both thoroughly debated and completely transparent,” she told news agency TT.

The total sum amounts to approximately a billion Swedish kronor ($153.5 million), of which 980 million is a claim on Congo.

About 50 million of this money is used to pay off the debt and the rest returns to the exchequer and can be used by the Swedish ministry of finance in any way they choose, according to TT.

But Gunilla Carlsson is adamant that the decision is in accordance with international regulations on how aid can be used.

Many aid organizations have complained against the way aid money is used to pay off debt. Often the loans were taken years ago by dictator regimes that never used it for aid in the first place but to finance military objectives or enrich the ruling families

But Carlsson thinks it is important to maintain credibility for state loans as a means to combat poverty.

“The ambition is that the loan can be repaid and that there is credibility in the loan as an instrument. It is important that we don’t cancel debts to hastily,” she told TT.

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FINANCE

‘We’ll be struggling well into next year’: German borrowing to soar amid pandemic

Germany on Friday passed a 2021 budget that once again smashes its "debt brake" rule, promising to shield businesses and workers from the economic hit of the pandemic as cases continue to rise.

Published: 11 December 2020 16:21 CET
'We'll be struggling well into next year': German borrowing to soar amid pandemic
The seating area of a restaurant closed off in Boltenhagen on the Baltic Sea coast. Photo: DPA

Chancellor Angela Merkel's government plans to borrow €300 billion ($364 billion) across 2020 and 2021 combined after the government pledged more than a trillion euros in aid, including through short-time work schemes (Kurzarbeit) and business support.

“The budget is the basis for everyone to be confident that we can provide the necessary economic and social support to get us through this crisis together,” Finance Minister Olaf Scholz told lawmakers.

The budget for 2021, which passed with 361 votes in favour to 258 against, provides for a total of €179.8 billion in new loans and nearly €500 billion in public spending.

It means for both 2020 and 2021, Germany will abandon its cherished “debt brake”, a constitutionally enshrined rule that forbids the government from borrowing more than 0.35 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), before planning to return to no new debt in 2022.

Restrictions to curb the second wave of Covid-19 – including shutting the food-and-drink, leisure and cultural sectors – continue to burden the economy, which previously pushed Berlin to amplify its aid to businesses.

Yet case rates continue to climb. On Friday, Germany reported a record nearly 30,000 new infections and almost 600 deaths in a 24-hour period.

Now, Merkel is facing calls to tighten restrictions again.

READ ALSO: Germany mulls three-week lockdown from December 20th

Aid can't be 'endless'

Despite the “ray of hope” of a vaccine rollout, Scholz said, “we know that… we're going to be struggling well into next year with the health, economic and social challenges that are going to follow from this pandemic.”

Businesses hit by the current closures are entitled to claim aid amounting to up to 75 percent of their revenues for November and December 2019, expected to cost the government some 30 billion euros.

However Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said last week that support for pandemic-hit firms implemented through November and December could not go on “endlessly”.

Nevertheless Altmaier on Friday said he aimed to increase the ceiling for aid from January in the case of a harder lockdown.

Germany's debt-to-GDP ratio will climb to 70 percent this year, Germany's central bank said in a report published Friday.

But public finances will likely improve as coronavirus measures come to an end, it said.

The government expects the economy to shrink by 5.5 percent this year, before rebounding by 4.4 percent next year.
 

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