IMF chief: ‘We have to press for debt restructuring’

The International Monetary Fund will sit down with countries including Sri Lanka, Egypt and Tunisia to discuss steps that need to be taken to help them as tighter financial conditions raise the cost of debt servicing, the institution’s chief said.

“The good news is that we see debt, we follow it, and we are already zeroing in on countries that are in need of debt restructuring,” IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said in an interview with Tom Keene on Bloomberg Television.

“We have to press for debt restructuring.”

She added that the IMF “will sit with Sri Lanka, we will sit with Egypt, we will sit with Tunisia, and we will discuss what realistically needs to be done,” she said, without saying that all three nations will require debt overhauls.

While Sri Lanka and Tunisia are among the dozen or so emerging markets with dollar-denominated government bonds that pay at least 1,000 basis points more than US Treasuries — above the threshold for debt to be considered distressed — Egypt is not, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.