DPA
July 5, 2006
ADDIS ABABA - The International Development Association (IDA), an arm of the World Bank, has written off $3.616bn of Ethiopia's debt under the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI), the bank's country office disclosed on Wednesday.
Bank president Paul Wolfowitz said the debt relief, effective July 1, would help "the poor who need and deserve better education, better health services, greater access to pure water, and greater opportunities to escape poverty."
In a statement, the World Bank said Ethiopia's economic performance over the past three years had been "strong and broad- based," making important gains on human development indicators.
"The main challenge for the Ethiopian economy in the coming years is to continue to grow while governance improves," Ishac Diwan, the bank's country director for Ethiopia and Sudan was quoted as saying.
Under the MDRI, the IDA is expected to provide some $37bn in debt relief to the world's poorest countries over 40 years. (DPA)
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