[stop-imf] IMF Says: 'Debt Cancellation Would Hinder Fight Against Poverty'

[Robert Weissman]

'Debt Cancellation Would Hinder Fight Against Poverty' Claims IMF

The Herald (Harare)
http://allafrica.com/stories/200210240510.html


October 24, 2002
Posted to the web October 24, 2002

Harare

The International Monetary Fund says erasing all the debt of the world's po=
orest
countries would not be the most effective way to support the fight against
poverty.

"There have been repeated appeals to the international community to
simply erase
all the debt of the world's poorest countries, but such a step would not
be the
most effective or equitable way to support the fight against poverty
with the
limited resources available," the IMF said in its latest survey.

"Total debt cancellation would imperil the funds that multi-lateral credito=
rs
would have for future lending and would come at the expense of resources
available to other developing countries, some of which are equally poor
but have
less external debt."

More than 80 percent of the world's poor lived in countries that were
not HIPCs
and total debt cancellation would exhaust the resources that financed the
Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility and the HIPC Initiative and the
IMF would
have to stop providing concessional support to its poorest members, the len=
ding
body said.

It said reducing world poverty requires a comprehensive strategy that inclu=
ded
the efforts of the poorest countries to help themselves as well as increase=
d
financial assistance from the international community and improved
access to
industrial country markets.

Debt relief under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative was only on=
e
element of the international support for poor countries that removed
debt as an
obstacle to growth.

For many years to come, the IMF said, these countries would continue to nee=
d
financial support on concessional terms to help them implement their
growth and
poverty reduction strategies and stand on their own feet.

Copyright =A9 2002 The Herald.

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