U.S. Treasury officials said on Wednesday they expect G20 discussions over debt relief for distressed countries to be "difficult" this week, but it was important to remove roadblocks to keep the issue from becoming a systemic problem for the global economy in coming years.
The officials, speaking to reporters ahead of a meeting of G20 finance leaders this week, said that a key challenge for the group to overcome is China's demand that multilateral development banks participate in debt relief by taking "haircuts" alongside bilateral creditors.
"The debt issues are challenging, I would say. They have been difficult the last several meetings and I expect they'll continue to be," one of the Treasury officials said.
