Maravi

(NEWZIMBABWE) IMF arrears reach US$140m: Biti

COMMENT - Leave it to the neoliberal MDC to start fretting how much the Zimbabwean state owed their masters, the IMF and World Bank. And of course we know their solution - HIPC, which is the World Bank's debt for assets swap. They want the 'privatisation' of the diamond and platinum reserves, 20% of the world's known diamond reserves, to Anglo-American De Beers, which already trades and mines 40% of the world's diamonds. Morgan Tsvangirai started out as a miner for Anglo-American.

IMF arrears reach US$140m: Biti
22/04/2012 00:00:00
by

ZIMBABWE'S outstanding arrears to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have now reached US$140 million at a time when the country owes the Washington-based group US$550 million, Tendai Biti, the Minister of Finance, has confirmed.

Biti said the country's outstanding arrears under the Fund's Extended Credit Facility (ECF) now amount to US$140 million. The ECF replaced the Fund's Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility.

"Zimbabwe does not have the capacity to pay off the IMF's arrears from its own resources," Biti said in Harare.

[Then why aren't they allowed to sell some of their own diamonds? Why this whole song and dance routine about not qualifying for the Kimberly Process? - MrK]

"In this regard, the country will need to request cooperating partners for a concessional bridging loan or grant to settle arrears to the IMF."

[Right, more debt to the IMF. Get a loan to pay off a loan. Got it. - MrK]

He said clearance of ECF arrears would unlock new financing arrangements from the IMF, within the context of a Fund supported financial arrangement, which would then be used to repay the bridging loan obtained from the cooperating partners.

[And now we get to the crux of the matter, conditionalities. - MrK]

"Zimbabwe will, however, need a track record of implementing sound macro-economic policies and assurances that arrears to other official creditors are programmed to be cleared," Biti said.

[These are the true colors of the MDC-Tea Party. Don't pay off the debt with the diamond assets you have, use debt rescheduling to push through neoliberal economic measures to 'liberalize' the economy. - MrK]

He however, said since 2009, the country had had a very successful track record of implementing sound macro-economic policies as witnessed by the stabilisation of the economy through the Short Term Emergency Recovery Programme (STERP I) and STERP II.

Zimbabwe owes multilateral institutions a grand total of US$2,504 billion, of which the World Bank is owed US$1,126 billion, the IMF, US$550 million, the African Development Bank (AfDB) US$529 million, and the European Investment Bank (EIB), US$221 million.

Biti said the government was implementing a series of reforms to get a grip on its finances.

These included strengthening public finance management, budget implementation and execution, review of national tax laws, effective aid coordination, debt management, as well as privatising, restructuring and commercialising state enterprises.

Labels: IMF, NEOLIBERALISM, TENDAI BITI

posted by MrK @ 6:35 PM