IMF cancels debt payments for 6 months for 25 poor nations

  International Monetary Fund approved $500 million on Monday to cancel six months of debt payments for 25 of world’s most impoverished countries so y can help tackle COVID-19 pandemic.

IMF Executive Director Kristalina Georgieva issued a statement saying IMF executive board approved immediate debt service relief for 19 African countries, Afghanistan, Haiti, Nepal, Solomon Islands, Tajikistan and Yemen.

“This provides grants to our poorest and most vulnerable members to cover ir IMF debt obligations for an initial phase over next six months and will help m channel more of ir scarce financial resources towards vital emergency medical and or relief efforts,” Georgieva said.

She said money will come from IMF’s revamped Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust, which will use recent pledges of $185 million from United Kingdom and $100 million from Japan. She urged or dors to help replenish trust’s resources.

19 African countries to receive debt relief are: Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Ch, Comoros, Congo, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Magascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone and Togo.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and a group of 165 former global leers and prominent international figures have urged suspension of debt repayments for world’s poorest and most vulnerable countries so y can use ir scant resources for coronavirus crisis.

Eric LeCompte, executive director of Jubilee USA Network, an alliance of more than 75 U.S. organizations and 700 faith communities working for debt relief, called IMF anuncement “an incredibly positive step.”

“Many of se countries have less than 50 critical care unit beds per country,” LeCompte said in a statement. “se countries need to bolster ir health systems right away and cancellation of debt for six months will help se countries.”

But LeCompte said more needs to be done.

“As poorest countries in world, y really need full cancellation” of ir debts, he said.