In October 2020, Zambia, struggling from an economic and financial crisis compounded by the Covid-19 pandemic, first missed an interest payment on its international bonds. Two and a half years later it remains in limbo, unable to resolve the default on most of its $31.6bn debts.

That an impoverished and vulnerable country has for so long unsuccessfully laboured to reach a deal with creditors and move on from the crisis is an illustration of the messy process to deal with government bankruptcies, which some experts fear has now broken down completely.

The consequences could be severe for the spate of countries that have recently defaulted on their debts, and the topic has been high on the agenda of this week’s spring meetings of the IMF and World Bank in Washington.