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Paris Club
freezes debt payments of over $3.3 b |
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The
Paris Club of creditor nations offered Wednesday an
unconditional freeze on debt repayments for Indonesia, Sri
Lanka and the Seychelles to help them recover from last
month's catastrophic tidal waves.
Debt payments owed this year amount to three billion dollars
for Indonesia, 328 million for Sri Lanka and five million
for The Seychelles, though some of those sums may be owed to
private creditors.
"This decision is an exceptional measure. It is justified by
the scale of the catastrophe. In this exceptional situation,
creditors wished that the suspension not be submitted to any
conditions, neither an accord with the IMF (International
Monetary Fund), nor to comparable treatment by private
creditors," Club president Jean-Pierre Joyuet stressed at a
press conference.
"It is an offer by the Paris Club that has not yet been
formally accepted by the countries concerned: Sri Lanka,
Indonesia, and The Seychelles," he added.
The death toll from the earthquake and tsunamis that
devastated Indian Ocean coastlines on December 26 has topped
159,000, while as many as five million people were thought
to be homeless or without food and clean water.
TSuch
conditions typically accompany aid by the 19-member Paris
Club, an informal cluster of some of the world's richest
creditor nations. "This measure takes effect immediately. It
will allow countries affected to use all available resources
for humanitarian needs and reconstruction," Jouyet said.
Detailed evaluations of needs by the IMF and the World Bank
would allow the Paris Club to fine-tune its offer, in
particular regarding how long it would remain in effect, the
club said. |
           
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The need for supplementary measures would also be
determined, with some political leaders and non-governmental
organisations calling for debt restructuring or outright
cancellation.
Other countries affected such as India, Malaysia and
Thailand have not asked that their debt payments be frozen,
and official aid announced at UN-sponsored meetings in
Jakarta and Geneva was independent of the Paris Club
measures.
To date, public and private aid pledged worldwide for the
countries hit by the disaster has surpassed 10 billion
dollars, according to an AFP tally.
The principle of a debt repayment freeze had been agreed
upon last week by the Group of Seven industrialised nations
and by several members of the Paris Club.
The Paris Club gathers here once a month to confer with
debtor countries with which it has agreements and, in some
cases, to re-negotiate repayments. The club was formed in
1956 at a meeting here of countries owed money by Argentina.
The club currently groups Australia, Austria, Belgium,
Britain, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland,
Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Spain,
Sweden, Switzerland and the United States. -AFP
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