Zimbabwe has paid 120 million US dollar (720 mio. DKR) to clear some of its arrears with the International Monetary Fund before a September 9th IMF meeting on the possible expulsion of the country from its ranks, the fund said on Wednesday.
An IMF official said the payment was regarded as a gesture of cooperation by Zimbabwe, which has teetered near expulsion from the IMF since 2003 because of its arrears and President Mugabes policies, widely blamed for the countrys economic crisis.
The IMF said that Zimbabwes arrears stood at 174 million US dollar after the August 29 payment. IMF staff briefed the funds board of member countries on the payment, but some directors told the news agency afterward they were more concerned with government policy steps to halt the economic slide.
– There are many countries who feel Zimbabwe should be expelled, although no one is actively pursuing expulsion, while others here feel it is more helpful to keep Zimbabwe as a member so dialogue can continue, said one director.
Facing targeted sanctions from the European Union and Washington and cut off from IMF and World Bank lending, Mugabes government is exploring new lines of credit to help deal with some 4,5 billion US dollar in foreign debt.
Mugabe won financial and diplomatic support from China last month on a trip to Beijing where he signed a deal on economic and technical cooperation with Chinese leader Hu Jintao.
Zimbabwe has also approached neighboring South Africa for a loan estimated by local media at around 470 million US dollar. Analysts say part of the loan would be used to pay the IMF arrears.
Zimbabwe obtained the money from exporters and money held within the country, the state Herald newspaper on Thursday quoted central bank governor Gideon Gono as saying, but a local source said the payment was covered by money from China.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe acknowledged that the repayment of more than a third of its 300 million US dollar debt to the IMF did not automatically avert its threatened expulsion from the global lender.
– We are a guilty party from a technical point of view, Gideon Gono was quoted as saying by the state-run Herald newspaper on Thursday, adding:
– All we can do is to plead mitigating circumstances to our arrears situation and pray that the jury will see for itself how genuine our efforts at self-correction are. After all, at school, students who may not have excelled get effort badges and are not expelled.
If expelled, Zimbabwe will be the second country to be thrown out of the IMF after the former Czechoslovakia in 1954.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
