The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is due to close its offices in Zimbabwe at the end of October because it no longer has a resident representative, a local official said on Monday.
”The dates for the closure [of the office] will be the end of October 2004,” said Rodney Matemachani, the officer in charge of the Harare office of the international lender.
”It [the office] can’t be open without a resident representative.”
The IMF’s last representative to Harare left a year ago at the end of his term and no replacement has been appointed, Matemachani said.
”After he left they didn’t appoint anyone … there’s not much happening between the IMF and Zimbabwe.”
The closure of the office comes amid strained relations between the Southern African country and the IMF over Zimbabwe’s failure to pay back more than $200-million in debt.
Zimbabwe is currently in the grip of economic hardships marked by high unemployment, triple-digit inflation and shortages of foreign currency.
A stiff economic turnaround programme implemented late last year has, however, succeeded in reducing annual inflation from a peak of more than 600% in January to 314% last month.
In July, the IMF gave Zimbabwe six months ”to strengthen its cooperation with the fund in terms of economic policies and payments” or it would recommend the compulsory withdrawal of the country’s membership.
The IMF board of directors last week issued a statement blaming Zimbabwe’s economic woes on ”weak governance, corruption and the lack of respect for the rule of law”.
The government denies responsibility for the economic problems, blaming them on sanctions imposed on the government by the United States, Britain and the European Union. — Sapa-AFP