LONDON - The UK Treasury has announced that the country will settle World War II debts with the United States and Canada by paying off the two final installments before the end of this year. The US will receive $83.25 million, while Canada will collect $22.7 million.
These figures are the last of the 50 installments that the UK began settling from 1950. "This week we finally honour in full our commitments to the US and Canada for the support they gave us 60 years ago," said Treasury Minister Ed Balls.
The final payments will be sent off on Friday. The US had granted an overall loan of 4.33 billion to Britain in 1945, while Canada had contributed $1.19 billion toward the war effort. However the loans will be repaid two times over as the US will have received $7.5 billion and Canada $2 billion at the end of the payments.
"It was vital support which helped Britain defeat Nazi Germany and secure peace and prosperity in the post-war period. We honour our commitments to them now as they honoured their commitments to us all those years ago," Mr Ball said.
In 1956, 1957, 1964, 1965, 1968 and 1976, Britain deferred payments due to economic recession and hence this seems a fair rate of repayments.
