The International Monetary Fund, to which Zimbabwe owes $295-million in arrears, is to close its office at the end of the month after 11 years in Harare, a move the state-controlled press described as politically driven.
A statement on the IMF website said it would communicate with Harare in the future via contacts with headquarters staff and regular executive board discussions.
It said that the closure of the office should not be linked to the overdue financial obligations. However, IMF deputy director for Africa, Siddarth Tinari, said the closure was the result of hard budget constraint, and that resources could be used more efficiently.
The state-controlled New Ziana news agency said that the IMF’s halt on lending to President Robert Mugabe’s government was part of British-led international pressure on the country to force it to relent on land reforms.
The government has made no payments on its arrears to Zimbabwe between 2001 and early this year.
In July, the IMF board decided to postpone a decision to finally expel Zimbabwe, because of the severity of the decision and the fact that Zimbabwe began making some payments toward reducing its debt.
The country’s economy went into a rapid slide from 2000 after Mugabe mounted his illegal land reform programme and drove nearly all of the country’s 4 200 productive white farmers from their land, a move that effectively wrecked its agricultural industry.
Simultaneously he launched the violent suppression of his political opponents, a move that economists say has forced 25% of the population, comprising its best educated and most economically active people, to flee abroad. – Sapa