Debt-Relief Plan Gains Key Support At World Bank, IMF
WASHINGTON -- Culminating more than a year of effort by the U.S., Britain and scores of antipoverty activists, the governors of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund endorsed a plan to forgive as much as $55 billion in loans to as many as 40 impoverished nations.</br></br>The endorsements, during a series of weekend meetings here, make the debt-relief offer all but final. The executive boards of both institutions could meet as early as this week to seal the deal.</br></br>"To make growth achievable and future aid more likely to bolster success, we simply must confront unsustainable debt burdens in the poorest countries," Treasury Secretary John Snow told representatives of the other 183 IMF and World Bank member nations Saturday.</br></br>Entering the weekend, the debt-relief plan appeared in danger of stalling, though President Bush and his counterparts from the other Group of Eight major industrialized powers had signed off on it during a summit in Scotland in July.</br></br>The big breakthrough came Friday night, when Mr. Snow and his G-8 counterparts signed a letter pledging to replenish the World Bank's resources to make up for revenue lost when the bank forgives billions of dollars in loans outstanding. The pledge helped assuage the fears of the Netherlands and other small countries that big nations would demand that the World Bank -- the largest lender for developing nations -- forgive billions of dollars in loans, possibly leaving it short of cash for its development mission.