WASHINGTON, USA (AFP) -- The IMF canceled Haiti's debt on Wednesday and approved a new program to support reconstruction and economic growth in the quake-hit country.
The International Monetary Fund's executive board approved the "full cancellation" of Haiti's outstanding liabilities of 268 million dollars to the Washington-based lending institution.
It also gave the nod to a three-year program to support Haiti's reconstruction and growth drive following the devastating January 12 earthquake that left hundreds of thousands dead in the impoverished Caribbean nation.
IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn appealed to donor nations to "start delivering on their promises to Haiti quickly so reconstruction can be accelerated, living standards quickly improved, and social tensions soothed."
At a high-level donors' conference in March, the international community pledged 9.9 billion dollars to Haiti's reconstruction, of which 5.3 billion dollars are due to be disbursed over the next 18 months.
Resources freed by the IMF debt relief will help Haiti meet substantial balance-of-payments needs exacerbated by the earthquake, the fund said in a statement.
The debt relief is financed by the so called Post-Catastrophe Debt Relief Trust Fund, recently established by the IMF to help very poor countries hit by catastrophic natural disasters.
Source: Caribbean Net News
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