Sri Lanka’s crisis shows how debt is devouring the Global South

5 comments

1. > To meet IMF targets – most notably, the goal of achieving a 2.3 percent primary budget surplus by 2025

   Idk if I’m just a stupid pleb but this just seems like such an insane goal to meet.Barely any stable governments these days are running surpluses so why is asking an economically collapsed nation to turn around a surplus in 2 years realistic?

2. The problem with the IMF is they’re a bank not a charity. Theyre basically the bank of last resort, if your getting money from them your basically fcked anyway. Your just desperately trying to stave off economic collapse. 

   These countries need help with no strings attatched, but that just isnt what the IMF is. I guess in theory they’re probably supposed to be “experts” at economic reform, but many of these countries have corrupt institutions (political and economic) hamstringing positive change to start with.

   Its likely no reform will go as planed without addressing corruption. Even then all of this is assuming the IMF even knows what the fck they’re doing. Which true or not, very few people believe they do.

3. The 17th IMF package for Sri Lanka… What a dreadful joke. This is how finance capital devours the world.

   Most of the world’s population is subject to austerity economics at the moment, 143 of the world’s 195 countries as of 2023… 85% of people.

   How did this come to be? The first countries to consciously pursue austerity economics were the fascist regimes of the 1930s. And now the whole world does the same!

   Are we… Are we run by Fascists? Did we not defeat the Fascists?

   Bourgeois governments will cut the throats of their own populace without a second thought. This is why Europeans and Americans fought revolutionary governments so hard. You have to get the corrupt officials in place that will take kickbacks for the blood letting.

4. IMF? Here was i thinking China was the one debt trapping nations.

   In all seriousness, this can really gut not the Sri Lanka’s economy, but society itself, forcing nations into heavy austerity especially poor nations can destroy services many rely on to survive and bring violence and decadence thay can last lifetimes.

   I am no expert on economics nor the exact situation of Sri Lanka but i believe it just goes to show that treating nation states as entities akin to companies that can “borrow” and predict what their “spending and revenue” from other international actors is a fools errand, its not that states cant take on debt but ultimally what debt controlers are nothing but either people who have a interest in seeing you succed so will be willing to basically give you money for free or will make impossible demands to have their money back plus profits.

5. Only the global South though?

   > Sri Lanka’s government debt to GDP was estimated at 96.1% as of late 2024 and was projected to be around 165.0% in 2024 and 157.0% in 2025 according to Trading Economics .

   [According to this map](https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/GGXWDG_NGDP@WEO/OEMDC/ADVEC/WEOWORLD) above 100% (or close to it) debt to GDP is being experienced by a lot of countries of the global West as well, global South just doesn’t have the exorbitant privilege of printing their own reserve currency and exporting the resulting debt and inflation across the rest of world, or to their neighbor in case of EU.

   Debt isn’t devouring financially irresponsible spendthrifts, just victims of predatory IMF loans.

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