HC Deb 26 July 1990 vol 177 cc442-3W
Mr. Sillars

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will publish a table showing the amount of British aid in each of the last five years to Malawi, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Papua New Guinea, India, St. Lucia, Grenada and the Philippines.

Mrs. Chalker

The amount of gross bilateral aid, including new investments by Commonwealth Development Corporation, given by the United Kingdom in each of the last five years to Malawi, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Papua New Guinea, India, St. Lucia, Grenada and the Philippines is as follows:

are Benin, Central African Republic, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea Republic, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Tanzania, Togo and Uganda. No debts to the United Kingdom were covered by the reschedulings for Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau and Chad. The deferral of all due payments, together with the reduction in interest payable on the deferred amounts, will substantially ease the financing constraints on these countries as they pursue programmes of economic reform designed to lay the basis for sustained growth.

Mrs. Clwyd

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list the debt service ratios for each of the least-developed countries between 1980 and the latest available figures.

Mrs. Chalker

Figures for the ratio of debt service paid to export receipts are available for all the least-developed countries except Afghanistan, Djibouti, Kiribati and Tuvalu in the "World Debt Tables 1989–90", published by the World Bank, a copy of which is in the Library of the House. Figures are available in all cases for 1988; in some cases, figures to not extend as far back as 1980.

Mrs. Clwyd

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he will make it his policy to support an early review of measures by multilateral institutions to ease the debt burden on the least developed countries.

Mrs. Chalker

The multilateral institutions have played their part in tackling the balance of payments problems faced by heavily indebted countries in the 1980s by providing financial support for programmes of economic reform. We have played a major part in ensuring that such support to the poorest countries is provided on highly concessional terms—especially through the IMF's enhanced structural adjustment facility and the World bank's International Development Association. It is important for the future functioning of the multilateral institutions that their preferred creditor status is maintained.