IMF writes off 161 million dollars of Ethiopian debt

Jan 8, 2005 (ADDIS ABABA) — The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced here Saturday 7 January it will provide 100 percent debt relief on all debt incurred by Ethiopia as, it said, the country has recorded two years of high economic growth and rapidly expanding exports.

“Ethiopia has qualified for the fund’s debt relief because of its overall satisfactory macroeconomic performance, progress in poverty reduction and sound public expenditure management,” David Andrews, chief of the IMF mission in Ethiopia, said in a statement.

“Under the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative, the IMF Executive Board has approved debt relief for Ethiopia. As part of the initiative, the IMF will provide 100 percent debt relief on all debt incurred by Ethiopia to the IMF before January 1, 2005 that remains outstanding,” he said.

This amounts to approximately 161 million U.S. dollars or 114 million dollars excluding the remaining assistance under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, said the IMF official.

The international community has made these additional resources available to help Ethiopia make progress toward its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), he said.

“The IMF looks forward to working with Ethiopia to help it develop a strong and stable economy and to make sustained progress toward the MDGs,” said Andrews.

Ethiopia is one of the world’s poorest and most indebted countries, which makes it particularly vulnerable to natural disasters such as drought.

The IMF is a soft-loan arm of the World Bank, which along with the African Development Bank is expected to follow the IMF action on debt relief to poor countries when their own board votes approving cancellation of debts owed to their respective institutions.

(Xinhua/ST)