US$10 million paid to IMF

ber and January to make good our commitment.” Zimbabwe owes a further $125 million under the Poverty Reduction and Facility Account, which brings its total arrears to $150 million. Gono said the country would pay off all its debt by December 2006. The government paid the IMF $135 million in September. At that time, Gono said had come from export earnings, inflows from expatriate Zimbabweans and locals working for foreign-owned organisations who were paid in foreign currency. However this week he revealed that The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has been Zimbabwes single largest foreign financier over the past five years, giving the country US$195 million this year to pay for critical requirements. Gono told reporters in Harare that the Egypt-based Afreximbank had since January given Zimbabwe US$75 million to buy grain, US$25 million for fuel and US$95 million for export finance. According to their webpage Afreximbank is owned by African Governments, African private and institutional investors as well as non-African financial institutions and private investors, and has the status of an international organisation. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has shares, and there are also South African and Chinese shareholders. Both countries have been extremely reluctant to criticise human rights abuses and the politicisation of scarce resources in Zimbabwe. China has protected Mugabe from harsh resolutions in the United Nations Security Council, while enjoying favourable trade agreements and plundering Zimbabwes resources to feed its fast growing economy. According to The Herald, Gono indicated that all the money from the African bank was used up and Harare was pressing on with negotiations with the South African government for a bailout loan reportedly worth about US$500 million. It is not surprising then that The Africa Import and Export Bank will hold its 12th annual general meeting in Harare shortly. The IMF began a process to revoke Zimbabwe’s membership in December 2003 after the government fell back on debt repayments. Since then the executive board has twice, in July 2004 and February 2005, postponed recommending that Zimbabwe be stripped of its fund membership, a move likely to further isolate the beleaguered country. The fund has said even if Zimbabwe managed to pay what it owes, it risked accumulating arrears again without fundamental policy changes to put the economy on a sustainable path.  Own correspondent/ SW Radio Africa