Finance

News

Zimbabwe turns to the IMF

17 June 2010

In March, the Zimbabwean cabinet agreed to a new debt relief strategy that includes recourse to the IMF and World Bank’s Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative. President Robert Mugabe has voiced consistent resistance to the conditions of HIPC debt relief, but finance minister Tendai Biti has said that the move was a consensual “cabinet decision”. Reports also surfaced in June that Zimbabwe is considering entering into a Staff Monitored Programme with the IMF (see Update 71), meaning heavy Fund monitoring and conditionality but no additional finance. This idea has been rejected by Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party.