World Bank to give US $1.2 billion debt relief

As the fourth country (after Uganda, Mauritania and Bolivia) to qualify for debt relief under the HIPC initiative, Tanzania is to benefit from US $1.2 billion relief over 20 years from the International Development Association, the 'soft-loan' arm of the World Bank, an Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) briefing paper stated on Tuesday. This is equivalent to almost 70 percent of Tanzania's debt-service obligations to the World Bank, it said. In addition, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) would provide a debt relief package worth US $152 million over 10
years - covering 58 percent of debt-service payments due to the Fund - the EIU said.

For its part, Tanzania is to prepare and implement a poverty reduction strategy for spending the debt savings, introduce a national campaign against HIV-AIDS and maintain macroeconomic stability.