Zimbabwe creditors to meet next week

Zimbabwe’s creditors will meet on Thursday next week, 23 February, as the country takes steps towards clearing more than US$6 billion of arrears on its foreign debt, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said today.

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 white former farmers, Ncube said.

Zimbabwe, which has suffered periods of hyperinflation in the past 15 years, had over US$14 billion in external debt as of September, according to finance ministry data. 

Due to its arrears, it has not received loans from lenders such as the International Monetary Fund (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.”

Zimbabwe paid off its debt to the IMF in 2016 but still owes the African Development Bank and the World Bank.- Reuters/Own

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