News Brief No. 00/96

News Brief: IMF Welcomes U.S. Action on Debt Relief, IMF Contribution to HIPC

October 25, 2000

Acting International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Shigemitsu Sugisaki welcomed today action by the U.S. Congress to finance debt relief for the world’s poorest countries, and particularly the approval of legislation that will enable the IMF to meet its commitment to provide US$2.2 billion toward the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC).

“Faster and deeper debt relief is critical,” Mr. Sugisaki underscored. “Today’s action by the U.S. Congress will assure that the IMF can finance its commitment to the HIPC Initiative. Without Congressional approval, we would not have been able to fully utilize the resources available to us to meet our debt relief goals.”

The Congressional action will enable the IMF to apply to the HIPC Initiative about US$800 million that represents the balance of investment income that would be generated from the IMF’s sale of 12.9 million ounces of gold. Previously, the U.S. Congress had only authorized use of a portion of the investment income.