st=”on”>Washington for the second time in six months to decide formally the fate of
Although
To achieve an IMF membership cancellation, the board needs an 85 per cent vote majority – a figure almost unachievable for a group containing many Third World countries that would be reluctant to support such drastic action against a state whose president, Robert Mugabe, has been a Third World hero for his struggle against colonial rule.
However, a cat and mouse game between
Although Mugabe continues to rubbish the fund publicly at political rallies, Gideon Gono, governor of Zimbabwe’s Central Bank, has said repeatedly that Zimbabwe is committed to healing its troubled relationship with the IMF. And IMF pressure clearly worked because, after a seven-year gap,
However, the standoff will remain because, although
The IMF will still demand that Mugabe cuts state expenditure, opens the market and halts further invasions of commercial farmland. The IMF board will also demand, as it has always done in the past, that government reduces money supply and the civil service wage bill, which eats more than 20 per cent of the national budget. – IWPR
Post published in: Economy