§ Miss LestorTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the British Government's policy on providing direct contributions to debtor countries to assist in the settlement of arrears or debt-service to the IFIs.
§ Mr. BaldryI have been asked to reply.
The United Kingdom provides programme aid in support of economic reform programmes agreed with the IMF and World bank as part of a collective donor effort to help finance the country's overall external financing requirements including debt service commitments. Exceptionally, at the request of the Zambian Government, we have agreed that our programme aid for 1994–95 may be used to reimburse the government for some of its debt service commitments to the international financial institutions. This is in the context of an agreed overall government budget which provides for increased social services provision.