IMF restores Zimbabwe's voting rights

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has restored Zimbabwe’s voting rights after a seven-year suspension over failure to pay €950m it owes the organisation and other creditors.

Yesterday’s decision by the IMF constitutes a first step towards endorsement of the economic policies of the coalition government formed a little more than a year ago by President Robert Mugabe and long-time rival prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

The southern African nation’s economy has improved under the coalition and Zimbabwe has started reducing the €100m it owed the IMF at the end of 2009.

But IMF officials said it has to produce a programme to settle debts to other creditors, such as the World Bank and bilateral lenders that total $1.3bn (€1.47bn) before the IMF can resume lending.