[ti:Activists Greece No the Only Nation Facing Debt Crisis] [ar:Mario Ritter] [al:As It Is] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]The debt crisis in Greece has gained the world's attention. [00:04.79]However, some activists say [00:08.12]many other countries are building up dangerous levels of debt. [00:13.63]They say private investors are lending money to those countries [00:18.88]without enough rules or legal safeguards. [00:22.79]European officials avoided one financial crisis recently. [00:28.70]Greece reached a deal with other European countries [00:32.74]to meet its short-term loan obligations last week. [00:37.37]The Greek government is expected begin negotiations on a three-year plan, [00:43.78]valued at over $90 billion, to deal with its international debt. [00:50.42]Debt activists say there is the possibility of a debt crisis in other areas, [00:58.11]especially in the developing world. [01:01.33]Tim Jones is with a British group called the Jubilee Debt Campaign. [01:07.78]It studies debt owed by countries around the world. [01:13.98]This month, the group released a report called, [01:18.29]"The new debt trap: How the response to the last global crisis [01:23.70]has laid the ground for the next". [01:26.63]Mr. Jones says an increase in lending to poor countries has become a problem. [01:35.62]"There's a huge boom in lending happening, [01:38.18]especially in some of the most impoverished countries in the world at the moment. [01:42.02]So we're worried that unless action is taken, they could end up in new debt crises again." [01:46.31]Mozambique is among the countries the report describes as facing a possible debt crisis. [01:53.73]"Its economy has been booming massively. [01:56.08]It's had huge amounts of lending to the country, [01:59.29]but actually poverty is increasing at the same time, and inequality is increasing. [02:04.29]So the loans are not necessarily helping in tackling the problems of the country." [02:10.73]The Jubilee Debt Campaign says the total amount owed by debtor countries rose 30 percent, [02:18.70]from 2011 to 2014, to $13.8 trillion. [02:26.97]It predicts that amount will grow to $14.7 trillion dollars this year. [02:34.67]The group says 22 countries are currently in a debt crisis. [02:41.60]Many more face a high risk of financial problems in their public or private sectors. [02:49.58]Judith Tyson is with the Overseas Development Institute, [02:55.43]a public policy group based in London. [02:59.49]She told VOA on Skype that the current debt problems [03:05.27]are all tied to the financial crisis of late 2007 and 2008. [03:12.56]While the world financial crisis hurt many countries, [03:16.82]some have struggled with debt for 20 years or more. [03:21.08]Jamaica, Tim Jones says, is one example. [03:25.81]"If we take Jamaica, their debt crisis first began in the 1970s. [03:31.07]And actually since the 1990s they've had huge government surpluses, [03:34.77]but the debt has remained because the interest is just so high, [03:38.65]and the economy has been depressed in the attempt to pay these debts. [03:41.99]And it just shows you can't get out of a debt crisis by making cuts." [03:45.89]The Greek government made a similar argument [03:49.24]during negotiations over its financial rescue plan. [03:53.79]However, European countries, led by Germany, [03:58.58]have called for continued spending cuts and reforms. [04:03.24]Greece reached a deal so that the country will stay in the Eurozone, [04:08.74]the group of nations that use the euro as their currency. [04:13.60]But for developing nations, Tim Jones says, [04:17.91]there is additional risk when a nation's currency loses value [04:23.81]compared to other currencies because of high debt. [04:28.41]"The debts are all owed in foreign currencies, [04:31.21]like the dollar or the euro. [04:32.71]And so when a country has a currency devaluation, then the debt payments shoot up." [04:36.88]So as debt grows, so do the risks. [04:40.45]Debt campaigners are calling for tighter controls of international lending [04:46.71]and cancelling some loans for countries already in crisis. [04:52.52]I'm Mario Ritter. [04:55.36]¸ü¶àÌýÁ¦Çë·ÃÎÊ51voa.com