Apparentlyunder the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative "What the World Bank and IMF are not telling people that this form of debt forgiveness has led to countries paying more to the bank. As an example, Bolivia which went through this program pays $1.05 for every dollar it is loaned under the HIPC. In the process of completing it’s new great debt relief program it faced structural adjustment programs aimed at privatizing the Bolivian infrastructure including it’s water supply which people would pay 1/5th of their incomes for the right to water under a plan devised in part by San Francisco Bechtel Corporation. So one must ask is the meetings this weekend about helping poor countries or about forcing an agenda under the guise of 9.11 to increase money into the confers of the U.S. Treasury Departments interest in the World Bank and IMF?

This multilateral debt (money owed to international institiutions like the World Bank and IMF as well as their sister institutions like the Asian Development Bank, the African Development Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank) has skyrocketed in the last few years for the poorest countries. For low-income countries (defined by the World Bank as those with per capita Gross National Product below US$785), multilateral debt increased by some 544% between 1980 and 1997, from US$24.1 billion to US$155.3 billion, and currently constitutes 32.75% of their total long-term debt burden (versus about 25% in 1980). For the most severely indebted of those low-income countries, multilateral debt increased by 459%, from US$10.6 billion to US$59.3 billion, with a corresponding percentage increase in their long-term debt from 22.3% to 30%. (Of the 32 countries classified as severely indebted low-income countries, 25 are in sub-Saharan Africa. For example the country of Chad in West Africa saw its debt increase from US$330 million in 1987 to US$1 billion ten years later. Chad's debt/GDP ratio rose from 27.9 percent in 1987 to 54.9 percent in 1997.)

Related Links

Whirled Bank

UK Jubilee 2000

< BR>