Saturday, February 12, 2005

The G7, aid and debt

Economist.com article: (Subscription required.)

"Five years after the campaign's deadline, many poor countries are still burdened. The 38 heavily indebted poor countries (HIPCs), most of them African, owe money not to rich nations, most of which have cancelled their bilateral debts, but to multilateral institutions, such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the African Development Bank (ADB). On February 5th the HIPCs were given hope. Finance ministers of the Group of Seven rich countries, meeting in London, said that 'as much as' 100% of their multilateral debts should be forgiven."

The issue of contention seems to be how, given their current budget problems, the G7 nations will replenish the World Bank and Asian Development Bank funds if those organizations forgive the debt of poor nations.

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