ZIMBABWE has missed out on a US$500 million debt relief
granted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to 25 poor countries to enable
them to focus their financial resources towards fighting the coronavirus
pandemic.
The southern African country is classified as a developing
nation, while IMF granted the relief to less-developed nations, with
beneficiaries including Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic,
Chad, Comoros, the Democratic Republic of Congo, The Gambia, Guinea,
Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nepal,
Niger, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands,
Tajikistan, Togo and Yemen.
Underdeveloped countries are defined as those with a less
developed industrial base and a low human development index relative to other
countries.
Zimbabwe has been unable to get funding from multilateral
lenders since defaulting on its debt in 1999, and has instead, relied on the
African Export and Import Bank for mineral-backed loans.
It has arrears of around US$2,2 billion with the World
Bank, the African Development Bank and European Investment Bank.
The IMF recently released a statement which warned that
COVID-19 will adversely affect Zimbabwe’s ailing economy.
“Zimbabwe is experiencing an economic and humanitarian
crisis. Macro-economic stability remains a challenge: the economy contracted
sharply in 2019, amplified by climate shocks that have crippled agriculture and
electricity generation; the newly-introduced Zimbabwe dollar has lost most of
its value; inflation is very high; and international reserves are very low,”
the IMF said.
The IMF also said with another poor harvest expected in
2020, the economic growth rate is expected to hit zero percentage points. Newsday
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