France to swap new amount of Moroccan debt

French ambassador in Morocco, Michel de Bonnecorse, announced in an interview with a Moroccan daily that a new amount of Moroccan debts owed to France will be swapped during the annual meeting, November 4-5, of the two countries' prime ministers.

According to the French diplomat, since 1996, France has handled 49 billion French Francs of Moroccan debts, including 400 million which were written off, 2 billions swapped in investments and 2.5 billion of the most expensive debts which were refinanced by the French Development Agency.

He added that as the debt-swapping operation succeeded, France has talked its partners at the Paris creditors club into raising from 20 to 30% the share of debts eligible to swapping.

For the ambassador, this should facilitate similar swapping operations with other countries. Spain has already followed suit with two operations covering $ 86 million, Italy and other countries getting ready to do the same.