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IMF to make new mission to Zimbabwe
Mail & Guardian (SA)
January 12, 2006

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=261154&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/

A five-member delegation from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is to arrive in Zimbabwe later this month as the Southern African country struggles to pay back about $146-million owed to the lending club, the finance minister said on Thursday.

The IMF has threatened to expel Zimbabwe from its ranks for failing to pay back loans since 2001 and has given the country until February to settle its accounts.

"They will be coming but I cannot comment on our target month of settling our dues," said Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa.

The IMF mission is scheduled to arrive on January 24 and depart on February 1, he said.

According to figures from the Reserve Bank from December, Harare owed the IMF $146,8-million.

The central bank pledged to the IMF three months ago that the remainder of the payment would be paid in Febuary.

"I will only be in a position to talk about our outstanding debt after their visit," Murerwa said.

In September, the country paid $120-million, which represented more than a third of its outstanding debt to the IMF.

That payment earned it a six-month reprieve. An additional $15-million was paid a month later and a further $10-million was handed over in November.

Without the payment, Zimbabwe was at risk of becoming only the second country to be kicked out of the IMF since the former Czechoslovakia in 1954.

But Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono cautioned following the last payment that more had to be done, saying in the state-run Herald newspaper: "We are not out of the woods [yet]."

Zimbabwe is in the throes of a severe economic crisis with foreign currency shortages and galloping triple-digit inflation.

Given the country's dire economic straits, last year's payments prompted speculation and suspicion as to its source, with economists noting that Zimbabwe could not afford to spare hard currency given its current shortage.

The IMF said in October that it would investigate the source of the loan payback and would report on its findings to the executive board in March.

An IMF mission travelled to Zimbabwe in June and returned in August of last year. – AFP

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