The Paris Club has cancelled 758 million dollars of Ethiopia's debt to "welcome" the efforts the country was making to implement an economic plan to aid growth and cut poverty, the official Ethiopian News Agency reported Monday. The debt-write off was made under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative that was launched in 1996 to ease the burden of the world's poor countries, the report said. Most of the Paris Club creditors also committed on bilateral basis to grant additional debt relief to Ethiopia, according to a statement from the Paris Club quoted by the report. "The Paris Club welcomes Ethiopia's determination to implement a broad-based and rigorous economic programme which should provide the basis for sustainable economic growth and comprehensive poverty reduction," the statement said.
