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Showing posts from August 26, 2019

Debt trap diplomacy and its devastating effects on Zimbabwe

By Rawlings Magede During a recent interview with Bloomberg news, Finance Minister, Mthuli Ncube revealed government’s plans to settle with global lenders, sell assets and make the difficult spending decisions needed for financial recovery.Ncube’s well read script is in line with government’s new trajectory on the Zimbabwe is open for business mantra which it hopes will set the country on a recovery path. With the country set to complete an International Monetary Fund Staff Monetary Program in January 2020, there is optimism at least within government that the end of the monitored programme will bring good fortunes. An SMP is an informal agreement between country authorities and IMF staff in which the latter agree to monitor implementation of a nation’s economic programme. SMP does not entail financial assistance or endorsement by the IMF executive board. It aims to implement a coherent set of policies that can facilitate a return to macroeconomic stability. The completion o