The Ministry of Finance and Economic Development has announced that Russia is to cancel US $1.104 billion of the debt owed by Ethiopia.

The agreement was signed by Ethiopian Minister of Finance, Sufian Ahmed and Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin at a ceremony held in Moscow last week.

The agreement stipulates that while most of its debt would be cancelled, Ethiopia will pay the remaining $160 million debt over the next 30 years.

This latest debt cancellation comes after the Paris Club creditors agreed to write off Ethiopia’s debt, after the country fulfilled the conditions for reaching the completion under the enhanced framework of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative in April 2004.

ENDS