Tsunami The International Monetary Fund and World Bank on Thursday came out in favour of a debt moratorium for the countries worst hit by the Indian Ocean tsunami. At a one-day donors' meeting in Jakarta, total aid pledged for disaster relief doubled to nearly $5bn (€3.8bn), while rich countries and multilateral institutions offered debt relief and soft loans to the worst-hit countries, including Indonesia and Sri Lanka.
But the scale of the response has left the United Nations and international donors with the prospect of more promised cash than they can use in the coming months. At the summit, world leaders gave guarded support to the idea of delaying debt payments. The UK, now chairing the G8 group of industrialised countries, and Germany have proposed the Paris Club of creditor nations suspend debt repayments by tsunami-hit countries. Canada has already announced a unilateral moratorium.
