HARARE - Financially-squeezed Zimbabwe government is still pursuing over $200 million in loans, pledged by regional countries nearly five years ago, to revive its stuttering economy.
In 2009, following the formation of a coalition government between long-time rivals President Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai, regional countries — including Angola, Botswana and South Africa (SA) — promised to bail out the country.
SA pledged a $100 million credit line while Angola promised $50 million and Botswana $70 million.
However, the funds are yet to be released.
Jonah Mushayi, Finance ministry’s acting director for fiscal policy, on Wednesday said the country was pursuing the promised loans among various funding options “to help improve basic services and rebuild the deteriorating infrastructure”.
“We were promised some funds by Botswana and South Africa. We have not received those funds and we will continue to pursue them,” he said.
Mushayi added that government had “identified sources of funding which include domestic resource mobilisation, harnessing Diaspora resources, debt relief and accessing external financing.”
Zimbabwe, which cannot access funding from multilateral lenders such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) because of longstanding arrears, is seeking $27 billion to fund its five-year economic plan — the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (ZimAsset).
It owes IMF in excess of $6,1 billion.
Mushayi said government also planned to issue Diaspora bonds to tap resources from the nearly three million Zimbabweans living abroad, but did not specify the details. According to figures released by Treasury, remittances from Zimbabweans living outside the country totalled approximately $1,8 billion in 2013.
Mushayi noted that the money to be raised would be channelled towards power generation, water and sanitation, transport, housing and the information and communication technologies among others.
“However, we need to come up with bankable projects and to prioritise servicing loans to unlock more financing,” he said.
This comes as the country’s economy, which registered average growth rates of seven percent between 2009 and 2012, is expected to grow by 4,4 percent this year due to low aggregate demand.
Former Finance minister, Tendai Biti, this week said Zimbabwe urgently needs a $4 billion stimulus package to get its economy ticking.
“The government needs to arrest the deflationary situation,” he said.
The shadow opposition MDC Finance minister argued that the Zanu PF-led government did not seem to have any ideas to reverse the economic challenges characterised by tight liquidity and massive company closures.
“We don’t believe that the solutions offered in the 2014 National budget will succeed,” he said.