Government agrees on debt plan

Zimbabwe has agreed to accept an international plan to help ease its debt burden, Reuters reported on Monday. The World Bank resident representative in Zimbabwe, Thomas Allen, was quoted as saying that the plan will be presented to the World Bank board next week. "The aim is to help bring the interest debt of the government down in order to make it easier to meet budgetary deficit targets and to create more fiscal space for social expenditure and poverty reduction activities," Allen said. Reuters quoted economist John Robertson as saying: "It would certainly make things easier but at the same time it would impose on us a massive responsibility to behave in ways that allow us to repay the debt." Zimbabwe's domestic debt at the end of July stood at US $1.58 billion, while foreign debt was equivalent to about 18 percent of its gross domestic product.