[stop-imf] Honduras may get structural adjustment conditioned debt relief

[Robert Weissman]

>From the World Bank's Development News:

IMF, WORLD BANK TAKE STEP TO PARDON HONDURAS DEBT.

The IMF said yesterday it planned to grant Honduras the status of a Highly
Indebted Poor Country (HIPC), which would allow the country to receive
$1.1 billion in debt relief, reports Reuters.  Speaking in Tegucigalpa,
IMF Managing Director Horst Khler praised Honduran efforts to recover and
stabilize its economy after Hurricane Mitch killed thousands of people and
caused billions of dollars in damage in October 1998.

Qualifying Honduras as a highly indebted country and forgiving debt,
however, would not happen until after the summer recess in August, Khler
said.

Honduran officials have asked multilateral lending agencies, including the
IMF and the World Bank, to pardon between $800 million and $1.1 billion of
the total of $2.4 billion it owes to those organizations, the story notes.
Honduras's external debt stands at nearly $4 billion and 40 percent of its
national budget goes toward servicing it.

In talks between the IMF, the World Bank and Honduras, the organizations
have said debt relief depends on the country following a three-year IMF
program agreed at the start of 1999.  Khler called on Honduras to stick to
reforms implemented last year, and said reforms in the Honduran Social
Security Institute and a new law to privatize electric power distribution
businesses were important.