The International Monetary Fund (IMF) Director in the Communications Department, Gerry Rice, in a press briefing last week, encouraged Zimbabweans to collaborate and stabilize the economy as the unrest took control in the Southern African nation.
Rice, was answering a question of the status of the Zimbabwean debt as well as its relation with the IMF.
“So in answer to that, I would say that, of course, Zimbabwe is facing major challenges and just in terms of the unrest, we encourage all stakeholders to collaborate peacefully in developing and implementing policies that will stabilize the economy and promote sustainable and inclusive growth,” Rice said.
Zimbabwe had a turmoil recently after the government’s announcement of the oil price increase, where citizens were already feeling the grip of other basic commodities hikes.
In terms of the Zimbabwean debt, the IMF director said no real change has happened in Zimbabwe.
“On the overall economic situation, debt and the IMF, there has been no real change in what I have said here recently which is Zimbabwe continues to be in a difficult situation regarding debt with protracted arrears to official creditors, including multilateral creditors such as the World Bank which severely limits Zimbabwe’s access to international financial support,” Rice said.
“In terms of the IMF, Zimbabwe has, in fact, cleared its arrears to us, to the Fund, but our rules preclude lending to a country that is still in or under arrears to other international financial situations. So until that particular situation is resolved, we would not be moving forward with a financial support for Zimbabwe.”
Zimbabwe is wrestling to resolve a debt of about US$16 billion, with arrears of US$680 million with the African Development Bank, US$1. 3 billion, with the World Bank and US$308 million with the European Investment Bank, according to the Minister of Finance Professor Mthuli Ncube in October last year.
Although Zimbabweans have been protesting against government policies, the director felt that the IMF and the African country were headed in the right direction broadly in terms of addressing the fiscal deficit and monetary policy.
“I said here the last time that the authority’s economic policies we felt were headed in the right direction broadly in terms of addressing the fiscal deficit and monetary policy and so on. I won’t repeat what I said the last time but that’s where we are on Zimbabwe,” Rice said.