IMF team to visit Zim amid expulsion threat

HARARE – An IMF team has lined up a visit to Zimbabwe to assess the state of the economically-ravaged nation ahead of a key meeting in Washington on its possible expulsion for arrears, an official said yesterday.

The International Monetary Fund mission comes after the World Bank’s lending arm demanded that President Robert Mugabe’s government take strict measures to put the blighted economy of the former regional breadbasket back on the rails. “The IMF delegation will be in Zimbabwe in early December,” press officer Gita Bhatt told AFP without giving dates.Zimbabwe, which narrowly averted expulsion from the IMF in September for debt arrears of US$295 million through a surprise payment of US$120 million, still owes the international lender US$125 million, Bhatt said.The visiting team will compile a report to be used by the IMF board to decide Harare’s fate when it meets at the end of February to review Harare’s long-overdue debt payments.An official at Zimbabwe’s central bank said the team was expected in the country on December 5 and would complete its assignment 11 days later.Zimbabwe is labouring under world record inflation of more than 1 000 per cent, spiralling unemployment and an acute shortage of food and essential goods blamed partly on controversial land reforms launched by the state.If expelled, Zimbabwe would become the second country after the former Czechoslovakia to be kicked out from the IMF for debt arrears.Nampa-AFP”The IMF delegation will be in Zimbabwe in early December,” press officer Gita Bhatt told AFP without giving dates.Zimbabwe, which narrowly averted expulsion from the IMF in September for debt arrears of US$295 million through a surprise payment of US$120 million, still owes the international lender US$125 million, Bhatt said.The visiting team will compile a report to be used by the IMF board to decide Harare’s fate when it meets at the end of February to review Harare’s long-overdue debt payments.An official at Zimbabwe’s central bank said the team was expected in the country on December 5 and would complete its assignment 11 days later.Zimbabwe is labouring under world record inflation of more than 1 000 per cent, spiralling unemployment and an acute shortage of food and essential goods blamed partly on controversial land reforms launched by the state.If expelled, Zimbabwe would become the second country after the former Czechoslovakia to be kicked out from the IMF for debt arrears.Nampa-AFP