Zim Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube
Zimbabwe Debt- Zimbabwe’s creditors will meet on Feb. 23 as the country takes steps towards clearing more than $6 billion of arrears on its foreign debt, finance minister Mthuli Ncube told Reuters on Wednesday.
About 17 countries from the Paris Club of creditor nations will attend, as well as the World Bank, African Development Bank (AfDB) and European Investment Bank, to discuss progress on economic and governance reforms, including compensation to former white farmers, Ncube said.
Zimbabwe, which has suffered periods of hyperinflation in the past 15 years, had over $14 billion in external debt as of September 2022, according to finance ministry data. Due to its arrears, it has not received loans from lenders like the IMF and World Bank for more than two decades.
The meeting agenda “is part of what is needed for us to walk through the road towards arrears clearance,” Ncube said. “It has really begun in earnest, so I am pleased we are at this stage and we are making very good progress.”
The creditors first met on Dec. 1st 2022, facilitated by AfDB Akinwumi Adesina and former Mozambique president Joaquim Chissano.
Ncube said in October that the government had begun making “token payments” to the multilateral lenders and planned to do so to its Paris Club creditors as well.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said after a visit to Zimbabwe in December that the country would need durable reforms and a clear path to restructuring its debt, including clearing the $6 billion of arrears, before it could receive Fund money.
Annual inflation fell to 229.8% in January from 243.8% in December, prompting the central bank to cut interest rates by 50 percentage points to 150%.
Meanwhile gold production in January fell 34% to 1895.9kg from 2867.9kg in Jan 2022, according to latest data from gold buyer Fidelity.
Reuters
