Paris Club freezes debt payments of Sri Lanka
14/1/2005 15:43
The Paris Club of creditor nations provided an unconditional freeze on debt
repayments for Sri Lanka to help it recover from last month's Tsunami disaster,
official Daily News said on Friday. Debt payments owed this year amount to
US$328 million for Sri Lanka, though some of those sums may be owed to private
creditors, Club president Jean-Pierre Joyuet was cited as saying. "In this
exceptional situation, creditors wished that the suspension not be submitted to
any conditions, neither an accord with the International Monetary Fund, nor to
comparable treatment by private creditors," Joyuet stressed. "It is an offer
by the Paris Club that has not yet been formally accepted by the countries
concerned: Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and The Seychelles," he added. The club
currently groups Australia, Austria, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, Finland,
France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Spain,
Sweden, Switzerland and the United States.
Xinhua
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