Canceling Poor Countries' Debt

The Governors of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund supported the G-8 proposal to cancel multilateral debts of the world's 38 poorest countries at the institutions' Annual Meetings held on September 24–25, 2005.

Canceling the debt was proposed over the summer at a meeting of the leaders of the 8 richest countries held in July 2005. The 8 countries are known as G-8 countries and include Canada, France, Germany Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Some people expressed concern that if the multilateral institutions erase the debt these countries owe, they would end up using most of their financial resources to fund this relief and cease to exist.

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