EU says it will give US $1 billion for debt relief

The European Union says that it will give an estimated US $1 billion towards debt relief for African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, South African newspapers reported on Thursday. According to the reports the debt alleviation would take three different forms. The first would be to write off some debt owed by the world’s highly indebted poor countries, the second to provide budget support to those countries linked to World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) programmes, and thirdly an international trust fund would be established to help ease the debt burden on poor countries. EU officials were quoted in the reports as saying that they would present the plan to ACP countries and EU ministers later this year.