Gambia’s External Debt Reduced By Nearly 30 Percent

The Paris Club creditor countries have reduced Gambia’s debt by 29.1 percent, from $40 million to $28.36 million, a statement by the country’s Finance and Economic Affairs Ministry said on Tuesday.

According to the statement, representatives of the creditor countries met with a delegation from the Gambia headed by Finance Minister Mousa Bala Gaye on January 24 to finalize the cancellation.

The creditor countries are Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway and United Kingdom

The Gambia will now have to sign bilateral agreements with the creditor nations as part of the terms of the cancellation by the end of June 2008, the statement said.

The statement also reasserts the commitment of the Gambia “to allocate the resources freed by this debt treatment to priority areas identified in the country’s poverty reduction strategy.”

The statement said the cancellation was granted within the framework of the Enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative.

The move followed the declaration by the board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in December 2007 that the Gambia had reached its completion point under the HIPC initiative and had become eligible for debt relief.

Comparable treatment from all other external creditors will be sought by the government, the statement notes.

Source African Press Agency

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