Tanzania Wins Debt Relief

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania, NOV. 28, 2001 (Zenit.org).- Tanzania has finally won $3 billion in debt relief from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, BBC reported.

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The agreement by the World Bank and IMF makes Tanzania the fourth country of a list of more than 36 to have got to this point.

The relief means that by next fiscal year the east African nation should see its interest payments fall to $116 million a year from $193 million in 1999-2000. By 2010, the World Bank said, the debt repayment should be down to an average of $87 million a year.

Until 2020, debt is forecast to remain below 150% of exports, a key target built into the debt-relief equations. Officials expect Tanzania will see its external debt drop by 54%.

Half the money should come from the Bank, the Fund and other multilateral creditors, with individual countries and commercial groups — as long as they cooperate — absorbing the rest.

The debt relief forms part of the heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC) initiative, of which Tanzania now becomes the fourth beneficiary after Mozambique, Bolivia and Uganda.

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