Evian, the G7 and HIPCs: a ranking of G7 countries’ debt policies for HIPCs.
Evian, the G7 and HIPCs: a ranking of G7 countries’ debt policies for HIPCs.
The G7 countries and HIPC debt relief
This paper presents a ranking system that measures the debt-relief policies of the G7 countries in relation to the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC). It accounts for the amount of bilateral debt reduction in the form of outright cancellations, grants, loans and contributions to the HIPC Trust Fund.
The ranking analysis particularly highlights:
- that France and the United Kingdom respectively ranked at the top of the G7 countries with respect to their debt relief policies, with the USA at the bottom
- that more could be done by all of the G7 both in terms of additional debt relief (both bilateral and multilateral)
- that one should be careful in interpreting the pro-activeness of some governments on the issue as a sign that they are delivering much and making a serious budgetary effort to tackle HIPCs’ overriding deb problems
- the positive aspect in which donors, besides Japan, don’t provide excessive amounts of loans to HIPCs, resulting in a positive impact on the future level of their external indebtedness
- concerning multilateral debt, more contributions to the HIPC Trust Fund would be welcome although what is really needed for HIPCs is an effort from the World Bank and the IMF themselves to cancel HIPC debt.
[adapted from author]