The Jubilee Debt Campaign says the total amount owed by debtor countries rose 30 percent, from 2011 to 2014, to $13.8 trillion. It predicts that amount will grow to $14.7 trillion dollars this year.
The group says 22 countries are currently in a debt crisis. Many more face a high risk of financial problems in their public or private sectors.
Judith Tyson is with the Overseas Development Institute, a public policy group based in London. She told VOA on Skype that the current debt problems are all tied to the financial crisis of late 2007 and 2008.
While the world financial crisis hurt many countries, some have struggled with debt for 20 years or more. Jamaica, Tim Jones says, is one example.
“If we take Jamaica, their debt crisis first began in the 1970s. And actually since the 1990s they’ve had huge government surpluses, but the debt has remained because the interest is just so high, and the economy has been depressed in the attempt to pay these debts. And it just shows you can’t get out of a debt crisis by making cuts.”