@techreport{NBERw10903, title = "Hiccups for HIPCs?", author = "Craig Burnside and Domenico Fanizza", institution = "National Bureau of Economic Research", type = "Working Paper", series = "Working Paper Series", number = "10903", year = "2004", month = "November", URL = "http://www.nber.org/papers/w10903", abstract = {In this paper we discuss fiscal and monetary policy issues facing heavily-indebted poor countries (HIPCs) who receive debt reduction via the enhanced HIPC initiative. This debt relief program is distinguished from previous ones by its conditionality: freed resources must be used for poverty reduction. We argue that (i) this conditionality severely limits the extent to which the initiative provides significant debt relief; (ii) depending on the response of monetary policy to an increase in social spending there could be a short-run increase in inflation in HIPC countries and (iii) the keys to long-run fiscal sustainability in the HIPCs are significant fiscal reforms by their governments, and the effectiveness of their poverty reduction programs in raising growth.}, }