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Roatan and Bay Islands Discussion List Archive
| Posted On: | 14-Aug-2005 |
| From: | "Melanie" [melwetzel.....com] |
| Subject: | [roatan] Re: GOVERNOR INVITE.doc |
> Would you please clarify for me what is mean't by the > phrase "Condoned External Debt Funds"? This refers to the external debt, that was recently condoned by the international lenders. I'm not 100% sure of the numbers and details . . .but I believe that last year Honduras had an external debt of 5.6 billion US $. A huge chunk of that was condoned, leaving a current debt of 2.6 billion. Previously, 33% of Honduras' income (in the form of taxes paid by everyone, gas tax, income tax, sales tax, etc.) went to servicing the debt. For example, on a gallon of gas, with 40 Lempiras of tax, about 13 lempiras went to the World Bank, Paris Club, IDB or "friendly governments" who had made loans to Honduras. Presumably, that interest payment burden will be lowered now, freeing up funds to actually be used by the country. Usually, a condition of the condonation is that the funds must be used to combat extreme poverty. So, the meeting (in my opinion, I'm not involved, but this sounds correct) will be a forum to discuss what local needs can be addressed by funds that are no longer assigned to foreign debt interest payments. Apparently the Municipalities will have access to some of those funds, and they want to have input from the community on their local needs. Honduras is still a yearly recipient of new loans, though. One of the "benefits" of the condonation was that it will make it easier to get new loans. Those new funds might also be taken into consideration, as the new debt probably has more favorable conditions (grace periods, etc), and not as much of the new debt needs to be used to pay back the old debt. It is either completely logical, or totally insane. Any other experts out there with comments? Melanie Wetzel -- --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page /dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/maOolB/TM --~-> http://www.roatanet.com To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/roatan/ roatan- : | |
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