africa: imf/world bank debt relief 'not enough' says Jubilee Research

During the Annual Meetings of the World Bank and IMF in Washington on September 28th and 29th 2002, creditor countries committed themselves to providing the $1bn of additional debt relief that had been announced during the G8 meeting in Kananskis. As a result, World Bank President James Wolfensohn has announced that he is now 'sleeping well at night' over the HIPC initiative. However, analysis by Jubilee Research has shown that even the $1bn additional debt relief committed will not be enough to bring down countries debt levels to the 150% debt-to-export target which is considered a 'sustainable' level of debt under the HIPC initiative.