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Credit trap: debt and dispossession in Central Asia
By:   []
Date: None

On 15 April this year, 15 women seized a local state administration building in northern Kyrgyzstan. Their demands: debt relief and the prevention of their houses being repossessed.

Barricading themselves inside the building, the women – clad in black headscarves as a sign of mourning – threatened to pour petrol over their bodies and set themselves alight if the country’s prime minister refused to negotiate with them. They placed gas cylinders along the office windows and poured petrol on the floor, setting the scene for a large explosion.

“We’re sick of financial slavery! Eradicate usury!” the women announced as they struggled to breathe in the room full of fumes. These women had spent years battling financial oppression, and had finally reached the end of their tether.

In 2019, Kyrgyzstan had the fifth-highest real lending interest rate in the world. For more than a decade, women in the country’s rural areas have been protesting against debt, house repossessions and exorbitant interest rates. Many, though not all, have pointed the finger at external actors, such as a 2016 protest against the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC), for creating and funding exploitative microcredit companies in Kyrgyzstan.

Kyrgyzstan is not alone. Debt has also crept into all corners of life in neighbouring Kazakhstan, where activists have also tried to campaign against its destructive effects. In 2014, people from five major cities rallied in front of the country’s Central Bank to demand a debt amnesty. Over the years, the activists have blamed the state for sanctioning predatory lending arising from western credit flows.

[1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/credit-trap-debt-and-dispossession-central-asia/