IMF Chief Assures Africa It Won’t Be Neglected

LAGOS, Nigeria —  International Monetary Fund Managing Director Michel Camdessus today began a three-nation tour aimed at reassuring Africa that it will not be neglected because of events in Eastern Europe.

“We want to tell African countries that they are not forgotten because of what is happening in the East,” said Paul Falcone, IMF special assistant for public affairs in Africa.

African policy-makers fear that their continent will be ignored by rich nations as they become preoccupied with wooing newly receptive socialist states to the capitalist camp and with the creation of a single European Community market after 1992.

Camdessus began his five-day African tour by meeting government representatives in Nigeria, the world’s largest black-run economy, which is struggling to overcome depressed oil revenues and a $30-billion foreign debt burden.

Falcone said a recent deal to reschedule $1 billion of Ivory Coast debt showed how the IMF can influence the governments to which African countries are indebted.

He said Western governments are increasingly willing to consider writing off portions of African debt.

“Public creditors realize African countries cannot pay off their debts on the old terms. Things are more complicated with the commercial banks, who do not want to accept losses,” he said.