For the most stressed emerging market borrowers, on the other hand, any help came too late. As the year began, Argentina, Lebanon, and Ecuador were at the top of the list of troubled debtors. By the summer, all three had defaulted. Argentina had been struggling for years. In 2018, its record $56 billion in IMF loans had not been enough to stabilize its situation. Lebanon, torn by internal strife and caught in the force field of regional geopolitics, had long been on the endangered list. Ecuador was on the brink of crisis as 2020 began and was hit hard by the sudden drop in oil prices.
