Highly indebted developing countries

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Map of the HIPC countries
  • Pre-decision point
  • Decision point
  • Completion point

    • As Heavily Indebted Poor Countries or Highly Indebted Poor Countries ( English Heavily Indebted Poor Countries , abbreviated HIPC ) is a group of developing countries with high debt - mainly in Africa, next to Asia and Latin America - which have in the context of the HIPC initiative of the G8 -Staaten of Debt relief should benefit.

    For the indebtedness of developing countries in general, see Public Debt of Developing Countries .

    history

    At the Cologne summit in 1999, on the initiative of the German government and under pressure from numerous non-governmental organizations (such as Erlassjahr.de ) , the G8 countries submitted a proposal to expand and accelerate debt relief for highly indebted poor countries, that of the World Bank and the IMF was adopted.

    Debt relief initiative

    Countries can qualify for debt relief under this HIPC initiative that receive loans from the World Bank exclusively on the most favorable terms and that have a debt level that is more than 150% (previously 200%) of export earnings or more than 250% of government revenues matters. Countries that qualify for this after fulfilling certain conditions will be forgiven all debts that are above the above limits. For all of these countries combined, the estimated debt relief is up to US $ 70 billion.

    The aim of this debt relief is to fight poverty in the countries concerned. Proponents of the HIPC initiative expect the countries concerned to use the financial leeway freed up by the reduced debt service for development policy measures such as infrastructure, social and educational tasks. This goal has mostly not been achieved.

    List of participating countries

    The initiative covers 39 countries (2012):

    • Countries that meet the first stage of the requirement ( pre-decision point ):
    Eritrea , Somalia , Sudan
    • Countries that show good governance have reached the second stage ( decision point ):
    Ivory Coast , Guinea , Comoros , Chad
    • Countries that also implement good governance have reached the third stage ( completion point ):
    Afghanistan , Ethiopia , Benin , Bolivia , Burkina Faso , Burundi , Democratic Republic of the Congo , Gambia , Ghana , Guinea-Bissau , Guyana , Haiti , Honduras , Cameroon , Liberia , Madagascar , Malawi , Mali , Mauritania , Mozambique , Nicaragua , Niger , Republic Congo , Rwanda , Zambia , São Tomé and Príncipe , Senegal , Sierra Leone , Tanzania , Togo , Uganda , Central African Republic

    criticism

    Critics of the initiative argue that the countries concerned would borrow new money again, particularly encouraged by debt relief and due to fiscal policy imperatives. So the debt problem would appear again in a similar form in a few years. It is also criticized that this represents a reward for those countries that have not managed to use international money to stimulate the economy in order to repay their debts. Accordingly, those countries would be punished that have successfully deployed their loans and repaid at least part of their debts because they are not qualified for the HIPC initiative.

    See also

    Individual evidence

    1. ^ World Bank : The Enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative
    2. ↑ International Monetary Fund : Debt Relief Under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative
    3. ↑ Erlassjahr.de : Debt relief initiatives (HIPC / MDRI)
    4. ↑ Wilfried Herz: The curse of good deeds. In: Die Zeit , October 7, 2004.
    5. ↑ World Bank : List of HIPC countries , last amended on January 24, 2012, accessed on June 9, 2016.
    6. ↑ Federal Agency for Civic Education : Approaches to solving the debt problems of the poorest developing countries

    Web links