Nepal Earthquake: Nepal repays almost $600,000 per day towards foreign loans

Nepal, the Asian country that has been hit by a series of devastating earthquakes, is already facing heavy debt payments, according to data from the World Bank.

The country owes $3.8bn (£2.4bn) in foreign debt, according to World Bank figures. The debt payments due in 2015 come to $210m.

In 2013 it paid $217m, or about $600,000 per day, in debt payments.

Nepal was already one of the world's poorest countries, ranking 145th out of 187 countries listed on the United Nations Human Development Index, before earthquakes hit the country on 25 April, killing more than 8,000 people.

On 12 May, another major earthquake of 7.3 magnitude killed more than 100 additional people in the country.

Given the country's plight, there are mounting requests for its debt to be forgiven.

"It's mind-blowing that one of the poorest countries in the world, struggling with earthquake recovery, pays $600,000 a day on debt," said Eric LeCompte, executive director of Jubilee USA Network. "That's $4 million a week that could be going toward recovery and rebuilding."

The country owes $1.5bn to the World Bank, $1.5bn to the Asian Development bank, $133m to Japan, $101m to China, and $54m to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

"The World Bank and Asian Development Bank must immediately cancel these debts," stated LeCompte, who serves on United Nations finance expert groups.

Nepal is one of 38 countries eligible for relief from the IMF's new Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (CCR), which was established during the Ebola epidemic to provide relief to the world's poorest countries.

In order for a nation to qualify for relief, a one-third of population must be impacted by a natural disaster, that destroys 25% of the nation's productive capacity or causing damage equivalent to the size of the country's economy.

Nepal is likely to qualify for nearly $23m from the IMF debt relief trust, according Jubilee USA. Nepal is due to repay $10m to IMF in 2015 and nearly $13m in 2016.

"This is exactly the situation the International Monetary Fund's new trust was created to address," noted LeCompte. "The money is there and it's important that Nepal get relief quickly."