Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Dutch Central Bank Sale Announcement Imminent? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: long-gone who wrote (5352)	4/17/1999 4:38:00 AM
From: Alex	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 81154

IMF-World Bank debt relief may not lower poor countries' payments •World Watch WASHINGTON (AP) -- An International Monetary Fund-World Bank debt relief initiative for poor countries may not reduce amounts these nations already pay to keep up their accounts, the two organizations said in an internal document. The report said the borrowing countries, international organizations, churches and charities are disappointed with the depth of debt relief as well as its slowness in coming. "This point is often summarized as 'too little, too late,"' said the report, which was obtained by The Associated Press. The report was discussed by the World Bank's executive directors Thursday and the IMF's executive board Friday, an IMF official said. Further discussions on the debt initiative are expected at this month's spring meetings of the World Bank-IMF and in June at the G-7 summit in Cologne, Germany. Five of the wealthy nations have proposed changes in the program, including selling some of the IMF gold reserves to make more money available to reduce poor countries' debt burdens. Rep. Jim Saxton, R-N.J., vice chairman of the Congress' Joint Economic Committee, said proposed IMF gold sales would "face tough congressional scrutiny in the coming months and an increasingly uncertain future." He said Friday that Congress must approve any commitment by the Clinton administration to sell the gold. Forty countries, mostly in Africa, were judged poor and indebted enough to qualify for the debt initiative -- called HIPC for highly indebted poor countries -- which the World Bank and IMF announced with great fanfare in September 1996. Of the 40, 12 have had their cases reviewed and seven -- Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Guyana, Mali, Mozambique and Uganda -- have been promised $6 billion in aid. So far only Uganda and Bolivia have had debt forgiven. In assessing how the program is working, the IMF-World Bank report said the seven countries' "estimated scheduled debt service payments after receiving HIPC assistance are not significantly different from the actual debt service payments" they had been making. However, the report says, if the countries implement economic reforms the program requires, then they will have more resources to devote to debt payments. The report said the debtor countries consider the program slow and inadequate, while U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the program is disappointing and not sufficiently flexible. The United States and other creditor countries in the G-7 consider the initiative has broken new ground, the report said, and they want to strengthen the "the links between debt reduction and poverty alleviation." This means demonstrating that money saved from debt-service payments be used for programs such as building schools or medical clinics. On financing, the report said, all the countries mention gold sales by the IMF, while four explicitly record their support for such sales. canoe.ca