[Previous entry: "European Public Uneasy Over Turkey's Bid to Join Union"] [Next entry: "Militant Cleric Considers Entry Into Iraqi Politics"]

10/02/2004:

"Debt Forgiveness for Poorest Nations Only a First Step"

WASHINGTON, Oct 1 (IPS) - Poor countries might need increased grants and an end to lending conditions imposed by public lenders like the World Bank (news - web sites) and IMF (news - web sites) if a proposal to cancel their debts is to really work towards ending poverty, say analysts.

The United States, the most powerful of the Group of Seven (G7) most industrialised countries that control Third World debt and whose governments dominate the executive boards of public lenders, said publicly for the first time Thursday that it is pushing for expanded debt relief for poor countries.

...In 2002, developing countries in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean received 58 billion dollars in loans and development aid, but paid 324 billion dollars to service debts from old loans, according to the World Bank and IMF.

...Sachs says that asking poor nations to continue to repay their debts so that the World Bank can loan them the same money again or lend it to another impoverished country ”makes no sense.”

”The only thing that makes sense is the net transfer of resources from rich to poor countries, not the transfer of resources from impoverished countries to other impoverished countries,” he added.

...The same sentiment was echoed by Britain's 'Economist' magazine. ”The truth is that poor countries need more resources from the rich,” it said.

”If competition to sound most generous leads rich countries to put more money in the aid pot, then it is worth pursuing. But HIPC debt relief alone is no panacea,” added the magazine.

Full Article:yahoonews.com

'Generous.' Yeah right.