The International Monetary and Finance Committee at its 2004 Annual Meetings called on the international community to provide assistance including 'further debt relief' to low-income countries for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It reaffirmed the Fund's 'important role' in...

The objective of the joint Fund-Bank debt sustainability framework for low-income countries is to support LICs in their efforts to achieve their development goals without creating future debt problems. Countries that have received debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC)...

An analysis of recent programs in low-income countries, covering countries with continuous program engagement with the IMF throughout the period 2007-09, shows that program design has been adapted to provide expanded policy space in response to the food and fuel price shocks of 2007-08 and to...

This paper proposes a new facilities architecture for Low-Income Countries. It is based on "Option 2" set out in the framework paper discussed by the Executive Board on March 20, 2009. The new architecture provides a unified facilities framework for LICs under a new Poverty Reduction and Growth...

A new framework to facilitate mobilization of loan resources for the PRGT became effective in June 2010. It includes a voluntary encashment regime allowing claims of participating creditors to qualify as reserve assets; the issuance of PRGT notes; and a revised framework for borrowing in SDRs....

This paper provides a semi-annual review of the status of financing for the Fund's concessional lending and debt relief to low-income countries (LICs). Since the last review, the Executive Board has approved comprehensive reforms of the Fund's concessional lending instruments and financing...

Low-income countries are being hit hard by the global financial crisis. They are facing a sharp contraction in export growth, FDI inflows, and remittances, and lower-than-committed aid. But a marked recovery is in prospect for 2010 helped by rising world demand and supported by short-term...

This paper identifies the countries that meet the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative's income and indebtedness eligibility criteria based on end-2004 data. It also updates the status of these countries toward qualifying for debt relief and presents cost estimates of debt...

This report provides an update on the status of implementation, impact and costs of the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) Initiative and the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI) since mid-2006. It also discusses the status of creditor participation in both initiatives and the...