The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly lengthened the list of developing and emerging market economies in debt distress. For some, a crisis is imminent. For many more, only exceptionally low global interest rates may be delaying a reckoning. Default rates are rising, and the need for debt...

Today, more than half of low-income countries eligible for relief under the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) are either in debt distress or at high risk. Several emerging markets have either recently restructured (Argentina and Ecuador) or remain in default (Lebanon, Surinam, and...