Monrovia — Liberia's Finance Minister Antoinette Sayeh said on Monday that it was time for "guarded optimism" when she described how close, but yet far, Liberia was toward debt relief.

The Finance Minister spoke cautiously optimistic following her return from the annual meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington DC, where she participated in meetings on the process leading to a possible waiver of Liberia's external debts.

Liberia's external debt is estimated as high as 4.7 billion United States dollars.

And for the last 18 months, there have been moves to off set Liberia's debt burden including an IMF staff monitor program under which the Liberian government has been effecting reforms, especially with the downsizing of civil servants and by attempting to adhere to fiscal discipline.

The Finance Minister told a news conference Monday that implementing a poverty reduction strategy for a full year and a satisfactory performance under a new IMF program were the two critical elements ahead of debt relief.

However, Sayeh said, "Liberia is very close to clearing its arrears to the IMF, World Bank, and Africa Development Bank; we are also potentially close to reaching the 'decision point' of the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative."

Sayeh said at the decision point, Liberia debt service payments will begin to be forgiven, but that the debt stock will remain.

She acknowledged that there were too many hurdles to reaching the HIPC decision point including a funding deficit at the IMF of an estimated 28 million United States dollars and a deficit at the African Development Bank of an estimated 35 million United States dollars.

"In other words, the money is fully not yet available to pay for our arrears to and debt relief from the IMF", Sayeh sounded cautiously, but added that, "We are currently working with the help of our international friends to attempt to close these gaps, a process that we hope will be completed quite soon."

The Finance Minister also pointed out that the Liberian government was yet to finalize a negotiated arrears clearance document with the World Bank which would allow the Bank to clear Liberia's arrears with an exceptional grant of about 501 million United States dollars.

Moreover, the arrears clearance with the World Bank is said to be conditioned upon securing funding at the IMF and the African Development Bank, Sayeh indicated.

Sayeh cautioned that although the Liberian government has "worked for so long to achieve debt relief which is very close We are not there yet; however, once we reach decision point, we must also continue to work to reach our HIPC completion point, the point at which debt relief becomes irrevocable."

It is at this HIPC completion point, Sayeh pointed out that Liberians will truly free themselves of the financial burden of the past.