The IMF, as a so-called super-senior creditor, always gets repaid — and therefore takes much less credit risk than other lenders. All the same, it now charges its largest borrowers — Argentina, Ukraine, and some 20 other countries — as much as 8.6% in their first year, declining only a little to 8.1% in year four.

Fully 3 percentage points of that 8.6% is surcharges, which end up making these loans significantly more costly than what individual U.S. homebuyers pay on their mortgages.

• For Ukraine, IMF surcharges alone are likely to total $1.5 billion between 2024 and 2028.
• For Argentina, surcharges for those five years are slated to reach $4.6 billion.
• For Ecuador, surcharges are likely to comprise 39% of the nonprincipal payments it makes to the Fund.