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Gambia News : Gambia meets requirements for full debt relief - IMF

"Of the 11 triggers for reaching the floating completion point, nine have have been fully achieved while two partially achieved, for which the staffs recommended that waivers be granted," the global institutions said in a joint staff paper.

"Gambia is now well placed to consolidate and deepen its poverty reduction strategy, while maintaining strong real GDP (gross domestic product) growth," they added.

The IMF and World Bank said that Gambia, however, did not meet requirements to qualify for additional debt relief under the global enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative to completely write off its remaining debt burden.

It said additional debt relief would be justified "if the deterioration of the debt burden indicators could be primarily

attributed to fundamental changes in a country's economic circumstances due to exogenous shocks."

Negative changes in global prices of exports and in the discount and exchange rates are considered exogenous factors, the IMF said.