The present document summarizes the main aspects of the analysis of the external debt situation of developing countries and countries with economies in transition, as presented in chapter V of the forthcoming Trade and Development Report 2015. It provides a brief overview of the core issues in the external debt of developing countries, and reviews the main trends in the evolution of external debt indicators and composition. It then analyses the underlying causes of the debt crises of developing countries in the world economy today, and discusses essential features and limitations of the current fragmented system of sovereign debt restructuring. Finally, it discusses different proposals to enhance sovereign debt restructuring mechanisms, in particular a multilaterally based statutory approach.