87 percent of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) COVID-19 loans are requiring developing countries that have been denied equal access to vaccines and are facing some of the world’s worst humanitarian crises to adopt tough, new austerity measures that will further exacerbate poverty and inequality.
The EU has decided its budget for 2018 with cuts long-term development aid that helps the poorest people. A coalition of development NGOs criticised the EU for putting its own short-term interests ahead of the people most in need.
The fortunes of Latin America’s 73 billionaires surged by $48.2 billion since the beginning of the pandemic even as the region buckles as one of the worst-hit regions in the world, said Oxfam today.