GOVERNMENT has paid US$114,7 million towards clearing its public and publicly guaranteed (PPG) external debt, which currently stands at US$14,04 billion, official data show.
According to the Zimbabwe Public Debt Management Office, the debt consisted of US$3,4 billion in the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) debt (24%), US$3,4 billion in bilateral debt (41%), US$2,3 billion in blocked funds (16,6%) and US$2,6 billion in multilateral debt.
Paris Club debt accounts for US$3,6 billion of US$5,7 billion bilateral external debt, while US$2,2 billion is owed to non-Paris Club creditors.
Principal and interest arrears and penalties make up 76% (US$6,3 billion) of the US$8,3 billion PPG external debt, which excludes RBZ debt and blocked funds.
Except for the RBZ external debt and blocked funds, the majority of the PPG external debt stock is made up of principal arrears of US$2,7 billion, interest arrears of US$1,6 billion, and penalties of US$2,1 billion, with the remaining US$2,03 billion in outstanding and disbursed debt.
Government says it started making US$66,9 million token payments to the World Bank in March 2021. The government has so far paid the African Development Bank Group and the European Investment Bank US$35,4 million and US$4,35 million, respectively.
The government also began making quarterly symbolic payments totalling US$100 000 to each of the 16 Paris Club bilateral creditors in September 2021, including Germany.
US$8 million has been paid to 16 Paris Club creditors so far.
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The external debt overhang continued to hamper the nation's development efforts, according to Finance minister Mthuli Ncube, who delivered the report to Parliament late last month.
“As part of an action plan and roadmap for arrear clearance and debt resolution, the government has established and formalised a structured dialogue platform with all creditors and international financial institutions, in order to institutionalise structured dialogue on economic and governance reforms,” Ncube said.
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