Debt Relief for Poor Countries:
Are the World Bank and IMF Doing the Right Thing?
POLICY FORUMMonday, July 16, 2001
4:00 p.m.
Featuring Adam Lerrick, Gailliot Center for Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University; Michael Hadjimichael, International Monetary Fund; Ian Vásquez, Cato Institute.
The Cato Institute
1000 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20001
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The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have identified 41 poor countries whose debt burdens have grown too onerous to pay back. The lending agencies have begun reducing the debt of some of those countries and are asking rich nations to provide additional funds to the $28 billion initiative. Michael Hadjimichael will explain how the plan will help get countries on the path to self-sustaining growth and how it will assure that new funds are spent wisely. Adam Lerrick will question whether the initiative goes far enough and will explain why the lending agencies have plenty of their own resources to pay for debt they cannot collect. Ian Vásquez will explain why he favors debt relief but not the IMF and World Bank initiative.