HARARE - Zimbabwe will come under the spotlight next Monday when the International Monetary Fund (IMF) executive board meets to discuss Harare's overdue financial obligations, the Fund announced this week.
A notice on the IMF website said the institution’s powerful executive board had set May 17 as the tentative date of its meeting to discuss Zimbabwe. On the agenda will be the report of an IMF team led by Vitaliy Kramarenko which visited Zimbabwe in March for Article IV Consultations as well as Harare’s overdue financial obligations to the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust.
Zimbabwe owed the IMF about US$133 million in outstanding loan repayments as of the end of last month. In an interim report published soon after its visit, the Kramarenko mission warned that Zimbabwe’s economic recovery remained fragile and called for the
urgent address of “significant policy challenges” to restore stability.
It was referring to the government’s heavy dependence on imports and increasing wage demands from unionists at a time the country does not have access to balance of payment support. The IMF mission however commended the progress made since the adoption of a multi-currency system in early 2009 which helped restore price stability, restart financial intermediation and impose fiscal discipline by precluding the option of budget deficit monetization.
It noted that Zimbabwe’s budget revenue had increased significantly which helped finance improved delivery of public services, while the fiscal position was broadly balanced.
Post published in: Economy