Trade and geopolitical tensions, as well as ongoing and emerging conflicts, place additional strain on the national budgets of many countries of the Global South. This is particularly true for countries already heavily burdened by interest and principal payments to external creditors, where it increases the risk of external public debt crises. In 44 countries of the Global South, national budgets are very heavily burdened by interest and principal payments to external creditors. These include Ghana, Sri Lanka, Suriname and Zambia, which have negotiated debt restructurings in the context of an IMF programme in recent years, but are still among the most heavily burdened countries worldwide. This severely limits their fiscal space. A further 25 countries are heavily burdened, and 16 countries are at latent risk. […]