IRNA, Iran
July 12, 2003

Moscow — Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank of Russia Oleg Viyugin on Friday stressed the necessity of rescheduling Iraq’s debts.

Viyugin said that the decision of the Paris Club to fix a concrete sum of Iraqi debts to the Club at the level of 21.018 billion dollars and readiness of this organization to initiate the debt rescheduling is a positive factor. “This is a collective decision and once it was taken, this means that consensus was found,” the official said. The Paris Club has determined the sum of Iraq’s debt liabilities to the members of this pool of sovereign creditors as of August 2, 1990 — before Iraq’s invasion in Kuwait. The volume of the main Iraqi debt to Russia was summed by the Paris Club at 3.45 billion dollars. Taking into account the unpaid interest, according to information of the Russian Finance Ministry, the total volume of Iraqi debts to Russia is nearing nine billion dollars, the Prime-Tass economic news agency reported.