“It is a splendid start and one hopes that they will, from here, go on to cancel all debt for most of the countries — I gather it is about 62 countries — who are heavily indebted.”

A G8 finance ministers meeting yesterday in London agreed to eradicate $40 billion of debt for 18 nations.  The majority of these nations were African, and nine more countries stand to qualify for further debt relief within the next 18 months, bringing the sum total to $55 billion worth of amnesty.

The agreement will save the nations a combined $1.5 billion in annual loan repayments. Cautious praise for the agreement suggests that impoverished nations such as Uganda will be able to use the funds to fight AIDS and hunger, among other concerns.  

However, the African continent owes a total of $500 billion dollars to the World Bank, IMF, and African Development Bank. The G8’s debt relief initiative, while an encouraging start, is not a remedy for the financial handcuffs that developing nations find themselves trapped in.

llouison