Types of debt

@box text intr = Multilateral debt: is money owed to international financial organisations such as the IMF and World Bank, as well as regional development banks such as the African Development Bank. Forty-five per cent of HIPC debt is multilateral.

Bilateral debt: is money owed to individual governments like the United States, Britain, Japan and France. These governments meet in two groups, the Paris Club (US, Japan and West European countries) and the non-Paris Club group (Asia and Eastern Europe). Forty-five per cent of HIPC debt is bilateral.

Commercial debt: is money owed to international commercial banks like Citibank. Commercial debt accounts for 10 per cent of HIPC debt.

[From Drop the Debt, <http://www.dropthedebt.org>.]

From GLW issue 456