How were war debts repaid?

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A 62-year period of repayment was arranged for, and thus principal and interest charges would have amounted to more than $22 billion. The United States refused to reduce the debt further, but the serious European financial situation caused U.S. agreement on some reductions in 1925-26. Payments were made until 1931, largely out of the reparations that the Allies received from Germany. In 1931, in the face of the worldwide economic depression, President Hoover's proposal for a one-year moratorium on all intergovernmental obligations was adopted. In the Lausanne Pact of 1932 the debtors greatly reduced German reparations in the hope that the United States would release all claims. The United States refused. Six countries made token payments in 1933, but in 1934 all the debtors formally defaulted except Hungary, which paid interest until 1939, and Finland, which continued to pay in full.