France asks Haiti's creditors: cancel debt quickly

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: AP/Business Week

France moved to help disaster-hit Haiti on Friday by urging creditors to speed efforts to cancel the impoverished Caribbean nation's debt in order to free funds that otherwise would be used on repayments.

Though the Paris Club of creditor nations agreed in July to clear Haiti's remaining $215 million debt to club members, the process can still take years to finalize.

French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said she asked members of the informal club to speed up the process. The next meeting is Wednesday.

Club members agreed to cancel $62.7 million under the International Monetary Fund and World Bank's initiative for heavily indebted poor countries and another $152 million through bilateral deals.

Read more: http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9D87FDO2.htm

[Dappleganger]

1. Good move, France owes them.

[zazen]

2. I'll say. And I think we owe them for the central US as well.

I was really ignorant of the conditions the French imposed during their years of slavery until reading about it this week. That was some serious savagery.

[Jefferson23]

3. The least they can do considering the history.

[SemperEadem]

4. Good. It's too bad that it took a monumental natural disaster

for the French to open a can of "act right".

[Earth_First]

5. The US will come in guns a blazin' against foreign debt relief... n/t

[alfredo]

6. Let's see if we can make Haiti a state. First all debt would have to be forgiven.