Rodrigo Rato, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said on Thursday President Robert Mugabe’s government needs to change its economic course and the way it is governing the Southern African nation.
The IMF has been critical of Harare’s policies and has stopped lending to the country over controversial policies such as the seizures of land from white commercial farmers, which critics say has led to a plunge in agriculture and food shortages.
Rato, who was addressing journalists in Washington, said the multilateral lender is still concerned over Zimbabwe’s future.
”We are really engaged in the future of Zimbabwe and we have been advising the authorities of Zimbabwe to change their course, both in macroeconomic terms and also in the respect of plurality and human rights and governance,” Rato told a press conference.
Rato said Zimbabwe was for a long period in arrears on loan repayments to the IMF and that is why its voting rights had been suspended.
Harare last month accused the IMF of being hijacked by Washington and London to continue suspending its voting rights despite having cleared a critical account that had seen the country being faced with expulsion.
”Those arrears have been cleared but also there are issues right now regarding the consistency of data and we are working on that,” Rato said.
Zimbabwe is in the throes of its worst economic crisis that has been agravated by the withdrawal of international support mainly over Harare’s controversial policies.
The meltdown has shown in chronic shortages of food, foreign exchange and fuel, surging unemployment and the world’s highest rate of inflation at 913,6%.
The government this week launched a drive to revive the economy and expects inflows of $2,5-billion ”either in cash or in the form of investments” within the next 90 days.
But analysts have been sceptical about Zimbabwe’s prospects and say the economy, which has contracted by 40% in the past eight years, is likely to shrink further in 2006. – ZimOnline