Government denies misleading IMF

The Zimbabwe government has denied it misled the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over military spending on its intervention in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), news organisations reported on Tuesday.

Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa said an internal memo, which claimed Zimbabwe had spent US $166 million from January to June rather than the US $3 million a month it had told the IMF, had been quoted out of context. He said the memo, quoted by London’s ‘Financial Times’ on Monday, referred to the potential, rather than the actual costs of the intervention.

A defence analyst told IRIN on Tuesday the US $166 million figure was “about right” for the total costs of keeping Zimbabwe’s 10,000-13,000 troops in the DRC.

The IMF, which approved a standby loan of nearly US $193 million to Zimbabwe in August subject to the government meeting economic targets, has reportedly asked for clarification from the government. The World Bank said on Tuesday it had indefinitely postponed talks on a new US $140 million structural reform programme until the government got its programme with the IMF back on track.

If there is evidence that the government had deliberately misled the IMF, “its going to impact on IMF and World Bank programmes which are themselves a precursor to other donor funding,” a Western diplomat told IRIN on Tuesday.