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CALL TO CANCEL NEPAL’S DEBTS IN WAKE OF TWO DEVASTATING EARTHQUAKES

18th May, 2015

The UK-based Jubilee Debt Campaign has joined more than 30 Asian-based organisations in calling for Nepal’s debts to be cancelled in the wake of two massive earthquakes which have left much of the small nation in ruins.

The call was made on 15th May – the day Nepal was due to make debt payments to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Among other groups joining in the call was the Asian Peoples” Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD) which said that "already under several layers of socio-economic deprivations", Nepal was now at "great risk of regressing into deeper impoverishment than before in the face of catastrophe and crises".

Dr Sarba Khadka of Rural Reconstruction Nepal, an APMDD member organisation which also endorsed the call, said that with Nepal already one of the world’s least developed nations, the country would be " pushed back at least by a decade in its development efforts by these devastating earthquakes".

Jonathan Stevenson of the Jubilee Debt Campaign, said the advantage of debt cancellation was that it takes effect quickly and would immediately free up funds for recovery and reconstruction. He said the payments due last Friday would see "millions of dollars are flowing out of Nepal at the time of greatest need". "Creditors, starting with the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, should take immediate steps to reverse this.”

According to the Jubilee Debt Campaign, Nepal”s finance ministry reported last October that the country owed almost $US3.5 billion in external debts with just above $US3 billion owed to multilateral banks such as the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank.

The group said the country was due to spend $US210 million on debt repayments in 2015 alone, more than 5 per cent of government revenue including payments of $US48 million to the World Bank and $US14 million to the IMF.

~ www.jubileedebt.org.uk

– DAVID ADAMS

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