WASHINGTON The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund on Friday said they had agreed to support a comprehensive debt relief package for Guyana that would save the country 590 million dollars over the life of its multilateral debt, AFP reported.
In present value terms, the relief is worth 329 million dollars and is part of the joint World Bank-IMF heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC) initiative, which offers debt relief to impoverished nations that agree to implement IMF-backed economic reforms.
The figure announced Friday is in addition to 440 million dollars in relief committed to Guyana under an earlier HIPC program.
Combined, the two relief packages will cut Guyana's debt in present value terms by 54 percent.
In the latest measure, the World Bank will provide assistance to Guyana in the amount of 71 million dollars, or 40.7 million dollars in current value, while IMF relief will save the country 46 million dollars, or 39.5 million in current value.
Guyana will receive the full amount of the relief announced Friday, in which some of its bilateral creditors will also take part, when it outlines its plans for using the savings to reduce poverty.
To date, 12 countries have started the reap the benefits of the HIPC initiative: Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Guyana, Honduras, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda.
The World Bank and the IMF hope to have debt relief available to a total of 20 countries by the end of the year.