MOGADISHU, Somalia – The serving minister of Planning, Investment, and Economic Development of Somalia met with Kristina Svensson, World Bank country manager.
Mohamud Beenebeene and Kristina Svensson discussed the debt relief initiative and future collaboration between the Ministry and the World Bank in the planning and implementation of development projects in the country.
Somalia is continuing to make progress towards reaching the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative Completion Point in late 2023, according to the global lender.
Somalia reached the decision point for IMF debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative in March 2020, allowing it to get partial debt relief, reducing its debt stock from $5.2 billion to $3.7 billion.
On reaching the completion point of the HIPC initiative, Somalia will get debt reliefs from the IMF, the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the Inter-American Bank and the 22 members of the Paris Club, alongside its other lenders who will volunteer to do so.
The full debt relief will drop Somalia’s loan burden to $557 million – about 10 percent of its gross domestic product – from the current $3.3 billion, allowing it headroom to better deal with multiple issues slowing economic growth and development.
