Switzerland joins Zim donor fund

early recovery and development efforts in Zimbabwe.
In its monthly economic review on Zimbabwe for August the African Development Bank said Switzerland was now a member of Zim-Fund. The regional bank manages the fund.

Zim-Fund is made up of contributions from the United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, Australia, Sweden and Norway.
The purpose of the Zim-Fund is to contribute to early recovery and development efforts in Zimbabwe by mobilising donor resources and promoting donor co-ordination, so as to channel financial assistance to such efforts.

The thematic scope of the Zim-Fund initially focuses on infrastructure investments in energy, water and sanitation.
The Zim-Fund made a pledge of US$618,3 million in the current national budget and only US$142,5 million has been disbursed for technical assistance.
As at June 30, Zim-Fund had total pledges of US$72 million to finance two projects on water and sanitation and power generation.

Zimbabwe’s international reserves, made up of holdings of the International Monetary Fund Special Drawing Rights balances, would now amount to US$125 million after paying obligations of US$140 million to the IMF.

The AfDB says given the unsustainable level of external debt estimated at US$8,8 billion by IMF, Government will limit its future borrowings to only concessional loans and seek to fully re-engage with international creditors to seek a resolution to its external debt arrears situation.

The Zim-Fund was established in May 2010, following approval by the boards of directors of the African Development Bank Group.
Zimbabwe’s multiple-currency system is expected to continue to 2015, henceforth, the budget formulation will now take a three-year planning approach.

Consistent with this Government has introduced the concept of a Budget Strategy Paper as a prelude to the actual budget.
The BSP will outline the broad budget policy framework for the medium term and the initial BSP will cover the period 2012-2014.