Zimbabwe Bank Confident of Avoiding IMF Expulsion

Posted 05 December 2006 @ 11:46 am EET     Print     Reprint     E-Mail     Comments

HARARE (AP) - Central bank govenor Gideon Gono has expressed confidence that Zimbabwe would avert expulsion from the IMF after talks with officials from the international lender over long-standing debts.

"It is our intention to remain members not just for now, but for as long as we live," Gono told AFP Monday after a meeting with International Monetary Fund delegates who are in Zimbabwe on a two-week assessment mission.

Gono refused to say what was discussed during the meeting but said details would be released at a later stage. "We cannot do our work in the press. Naturally, when the work is done, it's a tradition the outcome of those deliberations will be made public."

He said Zimbabwe, which narrowly escaped expulsion from the IMF last year, still enjoyed cordial relations with the institution despite being in arrears.

"There is constant contact between authorities in Zimbabwe including the central bank and authorities in Washington the IMF. So we are working together," he said.

"Working together doesn't necessarily mean that we agree on every aspect of policy advice or on every aspect of perception, I don't think any country works like that.

"So it's those areas when we sometimes differ, where the media exaggerates the level of divergence, but we remain a member of the IMF. "Even though our voting rights are on ice at the moment . we remain a full member of IMF."

Zimbabwe, which narrowly averted expulsion from the IMF last September for debt arrears of 295 million dollars (222 million euros) through a surprise payment of 120 million dollars, still owes the international lender 125 million dollars.

"We have paid off the direct loans under the poverty reduction and growth facility," he said. "But obviously there is that other portion that remains outstanding. We will make good that debt in the fullness of time and soon as we can." He did not give a time frame to the proposed repayment.

He said that Harare authorities had an open door policy with Washington officials saying the 'love-hate relationship' between Harare and the Bretton Woods institutions has been "exaggerated by the media."

Commenting on the February board meeting which would discuss the fate of Harare's membership, Gono said it was too early for anyone to speculate. "I don't think anybody, including the the IMF itself, can be in a position to say what's going to take place at the board meeting,"

"No director can say what is going to happen in advance, what's going to be the outcome of the board meeting that has not taken place. Why don't we wait until February."
No one from the five-strong IMF mission, which is headed by Sharmini Coorey, was unavailable for comment.

Zimbabwe is labouring under record inflation of around 1,000 percent, 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 only the second country after the former Czechoslovakia to be kicked out from the IMF for debt arrears.