The Paris Club, which brings together all the Western countries that hold the bulk of the debts of developing countries, announced this on Tuesday. In concrete terms, this means that Brazzaville, Addis Ababa and Ndjamena will not have to pay their debts this year. On the other hand, it is not a cancellation, so they will have to pay them within three years. Loan payments not made this year are to spread out over three years beginning in 2022.With these three additional countries, to which we must add Pakistan, it is now twelve countries that are concerned by this moratorium, which was decided in order to allow developing countries, particularly African countries, to devote their financial resources to the response to the coronavirus. Seventy-seven countries are now officially eligible for this process, 30 have applied for it, and twelve have therefore, to date, received a positive response.
“For these 12 countries, the total amount thus deferred to date is around USD 1.1 billion, plus the deferment of pre-existing arrears,” said the Paris Club.