Despite Debt Relief, Poor Nations Back In the Red

Let us not pretend to be suprised by this, a number of assessments have warned about the futility of debt relief policies.

The report by the Washington-based Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) says that in half the countries that received debt relief under the programme known as the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, debt has in fact climbed back up to where it was before the debt relief plan.So far, the HIPC initiative has eased 19 billion dollars of debt in 18 countries, halving their debt ratios. However, the IEG found that in 11 of the 13 countries the report studies, and which graduated from the programme that qualifies them to start receiving debt forgiveness, called the completion-point, external debt has actually risen.

Wealth creation,industrialization and broad culture of ownership are the keys to climbing out of poverty.The sooner Sub-Saharan Africa accepts that this inescapable fact relates entirely to self-reliance the better.

via DENIAfrica