3.3 billion people live in countries that spend more on debt interest than education, UN says

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A new U.N. report says some 3.3 billion people – almost half of humanity – now live in countries that spend more money paying interest on their debts than on education or health. Launching the report, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told a press conference that because this “crushing debt crisis” is concentrated mostly in poor developing countries, it is “not judged to pose a systemic risk to the global financial system.” But he warned: “This is a mirage: 3.3 billion people is more than a systemic risk, it is a systemic failure.”  Guterres said financial markets may not be visibly suffering yet — but billions of people are and the levels of public debt “are staggering and surging.”