Zim pays IMF paltry $150,000

Published: 07 June 2015

Broke Zimbabwe government is making paltry ‘token' payments of $150 000 monthly to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to clear its $124 million debt, Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa has said.

Zimbabwe is badly in debt, owing nearly $10 billion in domestic and foreign obligations.

"Our intention is that by this time next year, we should be entering the new phase of clearing our arrears," Chinamasa told the press on Monday.

The southern African country cannot access fresh loans due to its massive debts, but Chinamasa government feels the token payments would rebuild financiers' confidence.

This comes as the IMF has repeatedly said the government can only gain access to new finance if it clears the arrears and presents a credible plan to clear outstanding payments to foreign creditors.

Domenico Fanizza, the IMF head of delegation said Zimbabwe's commitment to eliminate the primary fiscal deficit reaffirms country's intention to further raise its capacity to repay.

"The top priority is to move resources from a too high wage bill to much-needed capital and social spending," he said adding that to this purpose the authorities intended to work toward reducing the share of revenues absorbed by the wage bill.

"In addition, by amending the Public Finance Management and the Procurement Acts, they will seek to increase accountability, transparency and efficiency in the use of public resources. The reform of the tax regime for the mining sector could go a long way to mobilizing additional resources, and continuing to publish audited financial accounts of the mining companies will enhance transparency," he said.

In 2013 Zimbabwe began implementing the IMF-administered staff monitored programme aimed at helping the country clear its decade-long arrears and normalise relations with multi-lateral creditors.

- dailynews

Tags: IMF,