Imf Approval: Zimbabwe and Growth Trust

imf approval: Zimbabwe had been in continuous arrears since 2001, according to Xinhua China. The payment of the debt arrears follows the IMF approval of Zimbabwe debt clearance strategy in May this year. Zimbabwe paid 107.9 million dollars by transferring part of its cash holdings kept at the IMF to the Fund 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. 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 in 2016. 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. 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. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.