Agreement Reached on the Forgiveness of Debt of Poorest Nations By the IMF and World Bank

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"Last weekend, according to Trevor Manuel, South Africa's finance minister and chairman of one of the key committees at the meetings, the G8 agreement “emerged as the G184 agreement”, supported by the entire membership of the Fund and the Bank.

"There are now 38 countries that the twins deem poor and indebted enough to warrant forgiveness. Between them, these countries owe $42.5 billion to the World Bank's soft-loan arm, $10 billion to the AfDB and $5 billion to the IMF. Eighteen of these countries have already jumped through the hoops designed to test their commitment to sound policies. Their slates may be clean by the end of the year."