SF News – The Iraqi ambassador to Algeria, Uday Khair Allah, told reporters Wednesday that the Algerian government has decided to forgive all Iraq’s debt to this country and invited all Arab and world countries to follow Algeria’s footsteps.
Iraq’s debt to Algeria was estimated at $400 million. The amount included $167 million in unpaid interests and over $91 million in payment delay fines.
The ambassador said that many Arab nations are reluctant to forgive Iraq’s debts to and asked them to follow the Algerian example. He emphasized that Iraq should contact all countries it owes money to and request a write-off.
Iraq’s total government debt in 2010 was estimated at $92.3 billion according to Iraq’s Central Bank as it is announced on its website which includes 4.6.6 billion domestic debt. The CBI says that in 2003 after the fall of the previous regime in that country, the debt level was at $130 to $140 billion.
The bank says reducing the debt has been a priority for the government and debt relief negotiations have led to the cancelation of a significant amount of Iraq’s external debt.
Iraq’s Central Bank categorizes this country’s debt as that of Paris Club bilateral debt ($42.5 billion), Non-Paris Club bilateral debt ($67.4 billion), Commercial debt ($20 billion), Multilateral debt ($0.5 billion).
Bank say’s Iraq expects to receive no more than 80 percent cancelation from its creditors. Iraq continues to negotiations with mainly Gulf countries for more cancelation of Iraq’s debt, says the bank on its website.
