G7 Finance Ministers agree to cancel Haiti's debts

Finance Ministers from seven of the most industrialized nations in the world - known collectively as the G7 - have agreed to write off the money owed to their nations by earthquake-hit Haiti.

While AAP notes that Haiti's indebtedness to Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K. and the U.S. is relatively small - France and the U.K. are among the countries that have already indicated they would be canceling the Caribbean nation's debt - according to the Press Association there had been calls from charities and campaign groups for a joint commitment from the ministers of seven of the world's largest economies. And on Saturday, the second day of a two-meeting in the city of Iqaluit in Northern Canada, the host nation's Finance Minister Jim Flaherty told the press:

G7 will cancel all Haiti bilateral debt

The amount of money that Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere long before it was hit by the magnitude 7.0 earthquake on January 12, will no longer have to find for seven of its creditors has not been made clear but AAP states that Haiti still owes $890 million to various international organizations and countries. The Washington D.C.-based Inter-American Development Bank is reportedly owed some $365 million (41 percent) of that total debt and the World Bank, another organization based in the U.S. capital, $240 million (27 percent). Referring to Taiwan and Venezuela as Haiti's "other biggest creditors" after the countries in the G7 and Paris Club, the BBC says too that the World Bank has agreed to suspend Haiti's debt payments for the coming five years. In addition the BBC reports that the international aid agency Oxfam has put the amount Haiti owes donor countries and institutions at $900 million, again there is no clarification of the amount owed to members of the G7.