2. How big is the debt of poor countries?

The poorest 90 countries have debts totalling US $1.3 trillion, whilst for the poorest 144 countries, it is over US $4.9 trillion.

The total external debt of the very poorest countries (the '36 low income countries' which have an annual average income of less than $975 per person) was US $133 billion in 2011.
 
During 2008, the poorest 90 countries paid $135 billion in debt service (payments of interest and principal) – that is $370 million a day.
 
For all ‘developing’ countries, total external debt owed in 2011 was $4.9 trillion and over the course of that year they paid $620 billion servicing these debts.
 
The latest figures available are for 2011.