GNV News, December 24, 2025

According to research shared in December 2025 with the UK media outlet the Independent, it was revealed that major asset management companies are making huge profits from 15 low-income countries around the world that are in debt crises. Specifically, funds managed by BlackRock are estimated to earn US$2.1 billion in profits, those managed by Goldman Sachs US$900 million, and those managed by J.P. Morgan US$700 million. It is also calculated that holders of the debt of these 15 countries will gain a total of US$60 billion in profits.

Although lending by private companies carries high interest rates, it still accounts for a large share of external debt; another study finds that such private lenders make up about 39% of external lending. Among those with strong influence, asset management companies’ main business is to grow clients’ money through investment, and the assets moved by the big three—BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street—are thought to total as much as US$22 trillion.

Meanwhile, low-income countries struggling with debt are allocating much of their government income to debt service at the expense of investment in areas such as education and health. Especially since the 2020s, they are increasingly facing severe conditions due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, surging fuel costs driven by the Ukraine–Russia conflict, and the growing frequency of climate-related disasters. It has also been noted that between 2022 and 2024, capital outflows from low-income countries due to external debt repayments exceeded inflows from new lending by a total of US$741 billion—the largest in 50 years. As a result, there are fears that inequality at the national level will widen further. In countries that devote more than twice their export revenues to servicing external debt, on average more than half of the population cannot obtain the minimum nutrition necessary for long-term health.

Since the economic stagnation of low-income countries is in part rooted in exploitative structures formed during the colonial era, some argue that creditors should accept a certain degree of risk. Indeed, there are signs of debt restructuring and moves toward legal reforms that favor debtor countries, but debt remains a very serious problem for low-income countries, and its repayment continues to be an obstacle to health, education, economic development, and disaster preparedness.

Learn more about low-income countries and debt → “Vulture funds: powerful firms that prey on weaker countries“

Learn more about Africa and debt → “Africa’s economy: Can it break free from the history of debt?“

Wall Street in New York, USA, where companies that earn huge profits from low-income countries are concentrated(Photo: Henry Han/ Wikimedia Commons [CC BY-SA 3.0])