{"id":16033,"date":"2012-10-31T20:18:26","date_gmt":"2012-10-31T18:18:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/10\/zimbabwe-says-imf-move-can-help-it-pay-off-huge-debts\/"},"modified":"2012-10-31T20:18:26","modified_gmt":"2012-10-31T18:18:26","slug":"zimbabwe-says-imf-move-can-help-it-pay-off-huge-debts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/zimbabwe-says-imf-move-can-help-it-pay-off-huge-debts\/","title":{"rendered":"Zimbabwe says IMF move can help it pay off huge debts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>By Nelson Banya<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"articleLocation\">HARARE<\/span> Oct 31 (Reuters) &#8211; Easing of IMF restrictions on<br \/>\nZimbabwe should help it to clear its mountain of defaulted debt<br \/>\nand pave the way for foreign investment, Finance Minister Tendai<br \/>\nBiti said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday relaxed<br \/>\nrestrictions on technical assistance to Zimbabwe, a major step<br \/>\ntowards normalising relations with the destitute southern<br \/>\nAfrican country.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Zimbabwe&#8217;s voting rights in the IMF were suspended in 2003<br \/>\nover arrears and policy differences with President Robert<br \/>\nMugabe&#8217;s government. Voting rights were restored in 2010,<br \/>\nallowing Zimbabwe to again participate in IMF decision-making.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The decision basically lifts sanctions against engagement<br \/>\nwith Zimbabwe. It&#8217;s a major step towards Zimbabwe&#8217;s debt payment<br \/>\nprogramme,&#8221; Biti told Reuters.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Biti saw the move as allowing Zimbabwe to work on its<br \/>\nprogramme to reduce debt owed to global creditors, including the<br \/>\nIMF and World Bank.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;An accelerated debt repayment programme was not possible as<br \/>\nlong as those sanctions remained in place,&#8221; Biti said.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>While Zimbabwe is still not able to tap IMF funding, easing<br \/>\nthe restrictions moves it in that direction.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The IMF would want to see a record of sound policies by the<br \/>\nunity government of President Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan<br \/>\nTsvangirai before it agrees to a lending programme.<br \/>\n\u00a0 <span class=\"label\"><strong>Continued&#8230;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Nelson Banya HARARE Oct 31 (Reuters) &#8211; Easing of IMF restrictions on Zimbabwe should help it to clear its mountain of defaulted debt and pave the way for foreign investment, Finance Minister Tendai Biti said on Wednesday. The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday relaxed restrictions on technical assistance to Zimbabwe, a major step towards [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-16033","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16033\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}