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HARARE – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Friday maintained its suspension of financial assistance to Zimbabwe insisting the southern African country had failed to implement sound economic reforms. 

The IMF board gave Zimbabwe a six-months reprieve to settle its arrears and implement drastic economic reforms to arrest an eight-year old economic crisis described as the worst in the world outside a war zone. 

"The board expressed deep concern over the deteriorating economic and social conditions and regretted that the (Zimbabwean) authorities have not undertaken the policies recommended by the IMF. 

"The board urged Zimbabwe to resolve its remaining arrears . . . promptly, and agreed that it will again consider Zimbabwe's arrears in six months," said the IMF in a statement released after the board meeting in Washington, United States. 

Last year, Zimbabwe averted expulsion from the IMF after it made last-minute payments to the critical General Resources Account. The southern African country still owes the IMF about US$129 million. 

Zimbabwe has battled a severe economic crisis after the IMF pulled the plug on economic assistance to Harare in protest over President Robert Mugabe’s economic policies and other governance issues.

The economic crisis gathered momentum a year later after Mugabe seized white farms, a key sector of the agriculture-based economy, for redistribution to landless blacks. 

The IMF and major Western governments accuse Mugabe of ruining the economy, once one of the strongest in sub-Saharan Africa. Mugabe denies the charge. - ZimOnline

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