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STP News: Islands on 'good path' to get debt pardon, says IMF-World Bank team

Sao Tome, Nov. 9 (Lusa) - Sao Tome and Principe is on the "good path" to obtaining debt pardon, a spokesman for a joint International Monetary Fund and World Bank team said Wednesday.

Gonçalo Pascoal, who heads the joint mission, said his team had verified that the archipelago's authorities were "applying (the policies) we had programmed" to assure macro-economic and financial stability.

Sao Tome hopes to get the IMF and World Bank's blessing for a pardon of its estimated USD 300 million early next year.

The Washington-headquartered organizations included the islands in their Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) program, aimed to reduce poverty and provide debt relief, slightly more than three years ago.

The islands' compliance with the prescribed economic and financial restructuring program has suffered delays due to repeated changes of government, civil service strikes, the devaluation of the local currency, the dobra, and past holdups in the approval of an oil revenue management law.

RCN/SAS.