In an interview, the World Bank Country Director for Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe, Kundhavi Kadiresan, said: "Zimbabwe has been failing to repay its arrears to the World Bank which amount to about US$8,8 billion right now. This is about 100 percent of GDP (Gross Domestic Product)."
She said the country was US$6 billion in arrears, with US$2 billion being owed to the World Bank alone.
Other major international creditors include the African Development Bank (AfDB), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), another arm of the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which is also based in Washington D.C in the United States (US).
"Zimbabwe must first address the issue of arrears before we can seriously engage with it or fund its economic recovery. It must also show us that its macro-economic fundamentals have changed for the better and it must strictly adhere to ideas from the IMF,” said Kadiresan.
"We are holding discussions on areas of debt reconciliation in order to work closely with government. We will hold more discussions later this month (September)."
Another concern raised by the Wold Bank was the thousands of "Ghost Workers" that the Minister of Finance, Tendai Biti, recently confirmed were draining the government’s resources.
"We have been holding discussions with ministers in charge of the economy and what is being done about the alleged thousands of ghost workers who are still being paid by the government,” said Kadiresan. "We asked the government to tell us what they are doing about this issue."
Post published in: News