The Jubilee report, A New Debt Crisis - Assessing the Impact of the Financial Crisis on Developing Countries, warned that even before the effects of the global slowdown began to be felt, the World Bank had calculated that 38 of 43 indebted countries "required substantial debt cancellation" to meet the needs of their people.

"Today developing countries' debt stocks stand at a staggering US$2.9 trillion, and every day the poorest countries pay the rich world almost US$100 million in debt repayments," the Jubilee report said.

"Jubilee Debt Campaign estimates that at least US$400 billion should be cancelled for around 100 countries if they are to be able to pay for essential services for their people without having to tax those below the poverty line."

The debt crisis afflicting the developed world was in many ways a mirror image of the debt albatross developing countries had been unable to shake in the past few decades, the report commented.