MEMBERS
The International Monetary Fund issued its verdict on the Covid-19-stricken global economy: worst downturn since the Great Depression of the 1920s. Gita Gopinath, Chief IMF Economist, projected a growth rate of minus 3 for the world economy, a minus 6 for the developed countries, and a minus 1 for emerging and developing countries for the entire year of 2020 ("The Great Lockdown," IMF Blog, April 14, 2020). The Philippines, one of the countries waiting for the Covid-19 infection curve to fall and flatten, belongs to the last category; it is also one of the worst hit in Asia.
Countries, irrespective of developed, developing and the LDCs, are in a predicament due to the COVID-19 pandemic and are all facing an acute shortage of emergency protective devices and life-saving equipment.
On World Health Day, amid an unprecedented global crisis, more than 100 organisations are calling for developing country debt payments due in 2020 to be cancelled to fight the Covid-19 health and economic crisis.
We, in the Asian Peoples' Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD), are writing to express alarm and grave concern over reports from our members of rampant violations of human rights in Bastar (Chattisgarh).
Malini Subramaniam
The Asian Peoples' Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD) joins peoples movements and communities in Bangladesh in their struggle to stop the building of the Rampal coal-fired power plant.
