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Debt relief gains revive debate over IMF-WB conditions

AFP, Washington
While the world's poorest countries are close to savoring the fruits of a debt-relief deal worth billions of dollars, the real Impact of the move on the fight against poverty will depend on the conditions attached, activists warn.
The World Bank and International Monetary Hund over the weekend approved a plan to cancel an estimated 40 billion dollars inmultilateral debt carried by 18 poor countries, a step hailed by government officials and activists alike as breakthrough.
The initiative was drafted by the
Group of Eight industrialized nations, which agreed to finance the deal. About 70 percent of the debt is due the World Bank, with the remainder owed the IMF and the African Development Bank.
The 18 countries included in the initial phase are deemed to have carried out macroeconomic and structural reforms approved by the I MF and the World Bank.
But while debt relief activists gave a cautious welcome to the project, they warned that expand* ing the initiative will require more countries to submit to what they see as damaging conditions imposed by the two Washington-
based lenders.
"A further 40 plus countries need bnmediate debt cancellation.' said Martin Powell of the World Development Movement
"Those that do become eligible will certainly be forced to implement economic policies like privatization and trade liberalization first Yet this has been shown often to increase poverty and undermine democracy."
The group cited a study by the UN Conference on Trade and Development, which It said had found that least-developed countries adopting free-market reforms in the 1990s suffered
from growing poverty, unemployment. wage inequality and wage reductions.
The fund in a "fact sheet" said. "When a country borrows from the IMF its government makes commitments on economic and financial policies - a requirement known as conditionality... a way for the IMF to monitor that Its loan is being used effectively."
Even before a loan is approved, according to the IMF, beneficiary countries could be asked to adjust their exchange rates, eliminate price controls and adopt a government budget "consistent with the program's fiscal framework."