SIERRA LEONE  Debt treatment -      January 24, 2007

Supporting agreements with the international institutions

Programme supported by an Arrangement under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) with the IMF approved on May 10, 2006

Download the IMF report: PRGF document

Download the IMF report: Completion Point Document for the Enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative

Total external debt of the country

$1,573 million as of December 31, 2005

$363 million of which being due to the Paris Club as of December 1, 2006

Amounts treated

$363 million, of which $320 million being cancelled, of which $43 million being rescheduled

Accorded treatment

Completion point reached on December 15, 2006

Categories of debt treated

Treatment of arrears as of November 30, 2006

treatment of the stock as of December 1, 2006

Repayment profile

Treatment under HIPC Initiative Exit terms

Comparability of treatment provision

The Republic of Sierra Leone was declared eligible to the enhanced HIPC Initiative by the IDA and the IMF in 2002 and was declared to have reached its Completion Point on December 15, 2006. In this context, the Republic of Sierra Leone commits to seek promptly from all its external creditors which are not participating in the Agreed Minutes, their appropriate contribution in terms of debt relief to the enhanced HIPC Initiative, on top of traditional debt relief mechanisms and consistent with the proportional burden sharing based on their relative exposure in net present value of total external debt at Decision Point after the full use of traditional debt relief mechanisms.

The appropriate nature of the debt relief provided will be assessed not only on the basis of the reduction in the net present value of the debt as computed under Appropriate Market Rate, but also on the terms of repayment of the debts not cancelled. For this purpose, all relevant elements will be taken into account, including the level of cash payments received by those creditors as compared to their share in the Republic of Sierra Leone’s external debt, the nature and characteristics of all treatment applied, including debt buy backs, and all characteristics of the reorganized claims and in particular their repayment terms whatever forms they take and in general the financial relations between the Republic of Sierra Leone and creditor countries not listed in the Agreed Minutes.

Consequently, the Republic of Sierra Leone commits not to accord any category of creditors -and in particular creditor countries not participating in the Agreed Minutes, commercial banks, suppliers and bondholders- a treatment more favourable than that accorded to the Participating Creditor Countries.

Cut-off date

1 July 1983

Organisation of the session

The meeting was chaired by Mr. Ambroise Fayolle, Co-Chairman of the Paris Club.

The head of the debtor country's delegation was Mr. John O. Benjamin, Minister of Finance.

Participating creditors
  • AUSTRIA
  • BELGIUM
  • DENMARK
  • FRANCE
  • GERMANY
  • ITALY
  • JAPAN
  • NETHERLANDS
  • NORWAY
  • SWITZERLAND
  • UNITED KINGDOM
  • UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Observers
  • CANADA
  • IMF
  • UNCTAD
  • World Bank