Mottley: Global financial system driving vulnerable nations back into poverty

Bar­ba­dos Prime Min­is­ter Mia Mot­t­ley has launched a blis­ter­ing at­tack on the in­ter­na­tion­al fi­nan­cial sys­tem, ac­cus­ing glob­al lenders of ex­ploit­ing cli­mate-vul­ner­a­ble coun­tries and warn­ing that ex­ist­ing fi­nan­cial rules are ef­fec­tive­ly push­ing de­vel­op­ing na­tions back in­to pover­ty.

In strong­ly word­ed in­ter­ven­tions on cli­mate fi­nance and in­ter­na­tion­al trade, Mot­t­ley con­demned a sys­tem in which coun­tries fac­ing dev­as­tat­ing dis­as­ters are forced to pay high­er in­ter­est rates pre­cise­ly when they can least af­ford them.

“If you see a coun­try falling, do you now want to ex­ploit them by charg­ing them high­er in­ter­est rates or by deny­ing them ac­cess to a fair and lev­el play­ing field for in­ter­na­tion­al trade trans­ac­tions? That is what we are do­ing,” she de­clared.