ABSTRACT
This article analyses the growth and debt distress prospects of low-income countries (lics) based on projections of the 2009 World Economic Outlook (weo). It then reviews various debt sustainability concepts, including the appropriateness of the Bretton Woods institutions’ current debt sustainability framework, and summarises the recent debt relief initiatives, including the Heavily Indebted Poor Country (hipc) Initiative and the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (mdri). It also examines the equity issues related to the recent debt relief initiatives and discusses various solutions suggested in the recent literature on how to ease the tension between making the necessary investments to achieve the mdgs while maintaining a sustainable debt.
