Evaluation of RI debt delayed until 2000

Evaluation of RI debt delayed until 2000

TURKU, Finland (AFP): A decision by the so-called Paris Club of creditor nations on dealing with Indonesia's enormous debt has been delayed until next year because of the situation in East Timor, French Finance Minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn said here Saturday.

Speaking on the sidelines of an informal meeting of EU finance ministers, many of them members of the Paris Club, Strauss-Kahn said they had approved a decision taken Friday by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to suspend talks with Indonesia on its economic program.

"I have decided to put off to 2000 the examination of how to deal with the Indonesian debt," said Strauss-Kahn, who presides over the Paris Club, a group of creditor nations loosely organized to reschedule the public debt of poor debtor nations.

An IMF mission to Jakarta had been scheduled for mid-September to evaluate how well the government was implementing a program agreed with the IMF in the wake of the 1997 financial crisis in Asia, and to then disburse a US$460-million installment.

But, that mission has been put on hold following the violence in East Timor in the wake of a UN-organized pro-independence vote.

The World Bank was to disburse an additional $300 million to Indonesia next week, but that, too, has been put on hold.

After the Asia economic crisis, Indonesia was the beneficiary of a massive international bailout totaling some $47 billion, including $12.3 billion in credits from the IMF, of which the IMF has already disbursed some $10 billion.