Debt relief involves the cancellation, rescheduling, or refinancing of a nation’s external debts.

• Many of the world’s poorest countries have high levels of external debt owed to other governments, institutions such as the IMF and foreign companies, banks and individuals.
• The Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPCI) is an initiative to provide debt relief to heavily indebted low-income countries.
• Debt relief agreements are often conditional on the host country introducing structural economic reforms.