MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Cuba, Argentina, Peru, main Latam debtors of Paris Club

The Paris Club of creditor nations disclosed this week for the first time ever how much it is owed world wide, --330 billion US dollars--, with Cuba, Argentina and Peru top of the list in Latinamerica.

According to the list Cuba owes 29.7 billion US dollars (second of the global list behind Indonesia, 36.2 billion); Argentina, 6.5 billion and Peru, 3.7 billion USD. However the world's two largest emerging economies, China and India also figure high among the list of debtors with 27.3 billion and 19 billion. In a statement on its Web site, the Paris Club said the (disclosure) gesture was meant to "enhance transparency on debt data and to encourage all creditors, in particular major developing countries' creditors, to engage in a comprehensive debt reporting and disclosure process". The figures were released ahead of an international development conference in Doha, Qatar, this week. The debts are up to September first this year and are not necessarily updated or interests reconciled with debtors, said the 19 creditor nations group. "Around 10% of these claims (roughly 31 billion USD) are owed by heavily indebted poor countries. The Paris Club intends to cancel most of these claims on countries that implement poverty-reducing and other economic reforms under the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative and through additional bilateral debt relief efforts", said the Paris Club release. Nearly one third of the Paris Club claims (around 100 billion USD) is held on emerging market countries from Asia, Africa and South America that are members of the G20. The Latinamerican list also includes Brazil, 2.9 billion US dollars; Ecuador, 1.38 billion; Mexico, 1.5 billion; Venezuela, 698 million; Uruguay, 408 million; Dominican Republic, 851 million; Bolivia, 209 million; Paraguay; 428 million; Chile, 205 million; Colombia, 579 million; Costa Rica, 240 million; El Salvador, 690 million; Guatemala, 292 million; Honduras, 165 million; Nicaragua, 218 million; Panama, 136 million.