Actu­ally some good news today, we hope that there is more to come on this issue.

The World Bank issued a state­ment say­ing that they waive all pay­ments on Haiti’s debt for the next five years. The Bank points out they only rep­re­sent 4 per­cent of all of Haiti’s exter­nal debt, so many more lenders and coun­tries will need to fol­low suit.

From the World Bank’s press release comes details of the debt forgiveness.

The World Bank fully sup­ports debt relief for Haiti. In June 2009, the World Bank, along with the IMF and other donors, granted Haiti $1.2 bil­lion in debt relief through the Heav­ily Indebted Poor Coun­tries ini­tia­tive and the Mul­ti­lat­eral Debt Relief Ini­tia­tive. Since 2005, the World Bank’s finan­cial sup­port for Haiti ($363 mil­lion) has been car­ried out through grants. This does not include the $100 mil­lion in grants announced on Jan­u­ary 13, 2010, in response to the earthquake.

Cur­rently, Haiti’s debt to the World Bank, which is interest-free, is about $38 million—about 4% of Haiti’s total exter­nal debt. Due to the cri­sis caused by the earth­quake, we are waiv­ing any pay­ments on this debt for the next five years and at the same time we are work­ing to find a way for­ward to can­cel the remain­ing debt.

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