IMF Urge Zimbabwe To Improve Integrity

The International Monetary Fund or IMF says that Zimbabwe needs to intensify reform and meaningfully improve transparency. These will boost the country’s integrity as the government faces growing criticism about its dedication to delivering economic and political change.   President Emmerson Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe Source: enca.com President Emmerson Mnangagwa and senior officials say they are doing their best to lay the foundations for future growth and blame Western sanctions for hampering recovery and deterring investment.    But the opponents say of the government are saying he is reverting to the authoritarian tendencies seen under former leader Robert Mugabe, who died early this month. They also criticise Mnangagwa for presiding over soaring prices and shortages of foreign currency and fuel price hike that have sparked anger among a restive population.  The IMF said in a statement, after visiting Harare this month that it will review progress on a staff-monitored programme.  This programme doesn’t involve any IMF loans, but the Zimbabwean government hopes it can help unlock future lending from countries in the G7 group of world powers. The IMF added: “The key challenge is to contain fiscal spending consistent with non-inflationary financing and tighten monetary policy to stabilise the exchange rate and start rebuilding confidence in the national currency.” The FT report said payouts to Sakunda, a fuel company owned by an ally of Mnangagwa, were equivalent to the central bank printing money. A source with knowledge of the Sakunda transactions told Reuters the IMF had raised a red flag over the central bank’s preferential treatment of $366 million of Treasury bills issued to Sakunda in January. Zimbabwe, which adopted the U.S. dollar as legal tender in 2009, launched a transitional currency in February and converted all its domestic foreign-currency debt to local currency at a ratio of 1:1. But Sakunda’s bills remained denominated in U.S. dollars, the source added.