World Bank debt relief deal likely
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The president of the World Bank is optimistic that an agreement will soon be reached so that the debts of some of the world’s poorest countries could be cancelled. Paul Wolfowitz told reporters on Monday that “we’re very close to having that package put together,” referring to an agreement that would decide how to fund a plan to cancel the debts. Wolfowitz was speaking at a joint news conference with Gerrit Zalm, the Dutch finance minister, in The Hague. He said that progress had been made since World Bank governors met in September. The Group of Eight - the world’s seven leading industrialised nations plus Russia - had agreed at a summit last year in Scotland to write off $38 billion of debts owed by the world’s poorest countries to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF). The Netherlands is the fifth largest contributor to the World Bank and has fought hard to make sure that debt relief does not compromise the bank’s ability to keep lending. The G8 has not yet found a way to recapitalise the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) to help cover the deficit from the debt write-off, which is due to take effect on 1 July. The IDA is the world’s largest lending facility for poor countries. More : english.aljazeera.net |