Social Origins of Debt Crises : Reflections on Pakistan’s Experience

This policy essay, written as a UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) Working Paper, reflects on the social factors underlying Pakistan's chronic debt crises, their resolution, and potential paths to future prevention. It stresses the need for a debtors' perspective on sustainable development, sustainable debt, and odious (or illegitimate) sovereign debt. In the light of this perspective, it explores directions for national policies to resolve and prevent debt crises and ways in which multilateral stakeholders (including ESCAP) can support such initiatives. The essay was written as a background paper for the forthcoming annual ESCAP flagship publication, Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 2023, which will analyse debt sustainability challenges and explore policy options to sustain investment in sustainable development while containing the risk of debt distress, in the developing Asia and Pacific region