West Africa: Liberia completes old debt buy back deal

Liberia has significantly reduced its foreign debt by buying back $1.2 billion in outstanding government debt at a discount of nearly 97 percent of face value, the steepest ever negotiated on developing country commercial debt, the country has announced. The deal, according to the World Bank report, was concluded with the payment of $38 million to retire 25 outstanding commercial claims. The World Bank contributed half of the money through the International Development Association (IDA) Debt Reduction Facility, and Germany, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States are said to have contributed the other half.