INTERNATIONAL Monetary Fund experts (IMF) are in Harare to engage government on how to tackle the country’s 10,7 billion debt.
Online Journalist
Finance minister Tendai Biti told NewsDay Online that the IMF mission has since met government officials to discuss the process of evaluating Zimbabwe’s Staff Monitored Programme (SMP) as the country makes steps to settle the huge external debt. SMPs are informal agreements with IMF staff who provide advice to governments on the design of their economic programmes, and monitor the implementation. They do not entail endorsement by the IMF Executive Board nor financial assistance.
Concerned by the debt overhang, Zimbabwe’s cabinet in November 2010 adopted the Zimbabwe: Accelerated Arrears Clearance, Debt and Development Strategy (ZAADDS), a hybrid debt resolution initiative which includes the adoption of traditional debt resolution methods combined with leveraging the country’s natural resources to achieve sustainable economic development.
“We are in the process of negotiating ZAADDS (with the IMF), it is in this context that that the team is in the country. The meeting is not for Article IV consultations,” Biti said.
The debt strategy was approved by the Bretton Woods institution, which in October 2012 further relaxed the restrictions on IMF technical assistance to Zimbabwe that resulted from the country’s protracted financial arrears to the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust.
