Arab Monetary Fund reschedules Sudan’s debt

ABU DHABI, March 24 (AFP) — The Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) and Sudan have signed an agreement to reschedule the war-ridden African country’s debt of nearly 340 million dollars to the fund, the AMF has announced.

“Sudan’s debt has been brought down to 280 million dollars after the AMF rescheduled it as an exceptional case,” AMF chief Jassem al-Manai told reporters here after a formal signing of the debt restructuring.

“The AMF has also eased the repayment schedule and lowered the interest rate on Sudan’s existing debt as a move to help Sudan,” he added.

Sudanese Finance Minister Al-Zubair Ahmed al-Hassan, who signed the agreement with Manai, said it would ease his country’s financial woes.

The minister said Sudan’s external debt amounts to 23 billion dollars of which more than half is interest on loans.

“We have a road map made to repay our debts to be applied after the peace agreement. Sudan is serious about reforms and the AMF as you know links its loans to reforms carried out,” said Hassan.

Sudan’s loans are mainly from the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the AMF, the Paris Club as well as some oil-rich Arab countries.

Manai said Iraq continues to be the largest debtor of the AMF and that the loans are unlikely to be repaid in the short term.

“Iraq owes the AMF about 400 million dollars but the AMF is yet to decide about any rescheduling given the current situation there,” said Manai.

Sudan, like Iraq, has been plagued with war for years. The Sudanese conflict, which started in 1983, is the longest in Africa and pits the majority Christian and animist south against the Muslim and Arab north.

Peace talks between the Sudanese government and the main southern rebel group were due to adjourn last Monday but were extended until March 31 with the hope differences would be resolved by the end of the month.