East Timor debt, adjustment fears

The first elected government in East Timor faces an estimated US $154-$184 million shortfall in its initial three-year budget. In anticipation of the need for external financing, the transitional government filed an application for IMF membership in early April. The East Timor Action Network, however, called on the US and other donor countries to cover the financing shortfall, thus preventing the new country entering “the stranglehold of structural adjustment, loans, and the vicious cycle of poverty.” An ETAN spokesperson pointed out that international financial institutions and donor governments “actively aided Indonesia’s genocidal occupation of East Timor”.

East Timor Action Network statement