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Zimbabwe clears 15-year IMF debt arrears

Xinhua, October 21, 2016 Adjust font size:

Cash-strapped Zimbabwe has cleared its financial arrears of more than 100 million U.S. dollars with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), an IMF official said Friday.

Zimbabwe paid 107.9 million dollars by transferring part of its cash holdings kept at the IMF to the Fund's Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust, IMF director of communications Gerry Rice said in a statement.

"Zimbabwe is now current on all its financial obligations to the IMF," Rice said.

Zimbabwe had been in continuous arrears since 2001.

The payment of the debt arrears follows the IMF's approval of Zimbabwe's debt clearance strategy in May this year.

Under the debt clearance strategy, Zimbabwe pledged to clear its debt arrears amounting to 1.8 billion U.S. dollars to the IMF, World Bank and the African Development Bank (AfDB) in 2016.

Zimbabwe now remains to settle its 1.15-billion arrears to the World Bank and 601 million dollars to the AfDB.

However, the IMF indicated that it would not immediately release new loans to Zimbabwe until it clears arrears with other international financial institutions and bilateral creditors and also implements a strong reform agenda.

Zimbabwe is in sore need of fresh funding to shore up an ailing economy that is forecast to regress into recession this year after seven years of positive growth. Endit