Kinshasa, DR Congo - – Japan has cancelled US$1.17 billion debt owed by the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) following a good assessment of its public finances, the chargé d’affaires at the Japanese embassy to DRC, Kazuhiko Fujita said on Friday. He was speaking after he and Finance minister, Matata Ponyoat, had signed  papers related to the cancellation of the debt. The Japanese diplomat expressed the wish to see DRC continue making efforts to stabilise the country’s macroeconomic institution.

The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in June last year cancelled more than US$10 billion of DRC's foreign debt out of a total of 13.1 billion dollars.

Pana 25/06/2011