The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has expressed concern over the failure of Sudan, Somalia and Zimbabwe to honour their commitments to pay their financial debts
IMF’s claim about the delay in debt repayment of these countries came at a time when Zimbabwe’s finance minister said he expected some clemency from the IMF over Zimbabwe’s US$10bn external debt.
In a report called the Review of the Fund’s Strategy on Overdue Financial Obligations, released recently, the IMF said Zimbabwe and the war-ravaged nations of Sudan and Somalia were the three defaulting African countries.
Somalia and Sudan have accumulated obligations dating back to the mid-1980s, while Zimbabwe has been in arrears since 2001.
Ahead of the report’s release, Zimbabwean finance minister, Tendai Biti, said he hoped the IMF would provide good news to the African nations by granting more funds.
He had said, “We believe that our macro-economic fundamentals are sound, and that there is no reason at all why a positive decision would not be made in our favour.”
Recently, Zimbabwe’s government had refused to adopt the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) status, which would have resulted in the country mortgaging its mineral resources against its huge debt.
