Yugoslavia Hopes For A Writeoff Of Half Of Its Foreign Debt

Yugoslavia expects that about 5 billion dollars of its foreign debt will be written off, while another 4 billion dollars will be received as donor aid within the next few years. A statement to this effect was made Friday by Miroljub Labus, Yugoslavia's deputy prime minister. At present, Yugoslavia's foreign debt amounts to 11.5 billion dollars, that is, more than 1,000 dollars per citizen. In an interview to the Belgrade newspaper "Politika", Miroljub Labus said that at a conference of Yugoslavia's donors, due to be held in Brussels in early June, "the issue of the compensation for damage inflicted on Yugoslavia by NATO's aggression will be raised indirectly." As for the above-mentioned 5 billion dollars, the Yugoslav vice-premier explained that this was interest on debts that accumulated over the past ten years.