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Tracing Iraqi sovereign debt through defaults and restructuring. By Simon Hinrichsen, London School of Economic*

Abstract

In 1979 Iraq was a net creditor to the world, due to its large oil reserves and lack of external debt. Fifteen years later, its government debt-to-GDP was over 1,000%. At the time of the U.S. invasion in 2003, Iraq was saddled with around $130 billion in external debt that needed to be restructured. How does a country incur so much debt, so fast, and how does it get out of it? In answering this question, the paper makes two key contributions. First, I re-construct the build-up of Iraqi debt through the 1980s and 1990s using mainly secondary sources. This paper is the first to create a debt series going back to 1979. The rise in Iraqi indebtedness was a consequence of global geopolitical trends in the 1980s where political lending trumped solvency concerns. Second, through primary sources and interviews with key actors involved, I use oral history to tell the story the Iraqi restructuring. It was one of the largest in history, yet no clear and detailed historical account ex-ists. The restructuring was permeated by politics to inflict harsh terms on creditors at the Paris Club, at a time when creditor-friendly restructurings were the norm. In going for a politically expedient deal, however, the re-structuring missed an opportunity to enshrine a doctrine of odious debt in international law.

 

Download the Study as PDF file by clicking on following link .

LSE-WP304-Tracing Iraqi Sovereign Debt

 

(*)Simon Hinrichsen is working as Portfolio Manager with Sampension Insurance in Copenhagen and accomplished his PhD with the Lon

Comments (1)

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    Simon is to be congratulated for this extremely useful study. This study will benefit students, general readers and bankers, who are interested in reading about Iraq.

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