How much money did G8 leaders provide to subsidise the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative at Gleneagles in July 2005?
At Gleneagles the G8 effectively paid off the money owed to the World Bank group of lenders by countries that had achieved HIPC status. This amounted to US$37 billion, which will be transferred from G8 treasuries to multilateral bank accounts over the next forty years. In human terms, this is equivalent to about $5 (£3) in debt relief each year per inhabitant of the eligible countries. The G8 leaders’ “unprecedented” agreement to bail out their own institutions (the World Bank, IMF and African Development Fund) may well be useful to clean the slate and morally rejuvenate these discredited institutions, but in terms of extra money for the poor it is a farce.
