Zimbabwe has agreed a staff-monitored programme (SMP) with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), a senior official said this Friday, a tentative first step on the way to a closer engagement with the Fund and an eventual loan programme.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A staff-monitored programme is an informal agreement between a country and the IMF that can open the door to financial support from the Fund, help restart one that has gone off track, or enable repeat access to emergency assistance.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
George Guvamatanga, a senior Finance Ministry official, told Reuters that Zimbabwe’s authorities were aiming for a 10-month staff-monitored programme starting next month “if all processes can be completed in time”.
\n“The programme is to consolidate current fiscal and monetary policy reforms,” he said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
An SMP does not entail financial assistance or endorsement by the IMF’s Executive Board.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“The SMP is intended to establish a credible track record that supports the authorities\u2019 re-engagement efforts and complements their broader strategy toward arrears clearance and debt restructuring, including eventual access to external concessional financing,” said IMF missionCchief Wojciech Maliszewski in a statement.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
DECADES OF HYPERINFLATION<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Zimbabwe, which has endured decades of hyperinflation, currency volatility, and dependence on informal dollarized markets, has had previous staff-monitored programmes. The last one launched in May 2019 but was abandoned after the nation failed to stick to the lender’s recommendations.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Ministry of Finance has pointed to recent progress in the country’s macroeconomic backdrop.
\nIn January, the Ministry said domestic currency inflation reached a milestone at the start of the year, with annual price growth slowing to 4.1%, while United States Dollar inflation fell to 1% year-on-year.
\nData showed that by December 2025, the government had accumulated $1.2 billion in foreign asset reserves to back the Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG) currency, introduced in 2024 to restore monetary stability.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
But in order to secure much-needed fresh financing from international partners, Zimbabwe has to clear its arrears.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Zimbabwe has been accumulating external arrears to its official creditors since the early 2000s, according to an October report by the IMF, which estimated arrears at $7.4 billion.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The IMF, whose financing serves as an anchor for funding from other sources such as the World Bank, has said it is unable to give the Southern African country a funded programme until it clears its external arrears.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Kepler-Karst Law Firm, a legal adviser to Zimbabwe, said the agreement on a staff-monitored programme was designed to bolster macroeconomic stability and establish a policy reform record.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“This agreement serves as a critical step toward arrears clearance and debt resolution,” the firm said in a statement.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–Reuters–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":16356,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-23401","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Zimbabwe has agreed a staff-monitored programme (SMP) with the International Monetary Fund","published_date":"2026-02-06 14:40:34","news_description":"Zimbabwe has agreed a staff-monitored programme (SMP) with the International Monetary Fund","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26381,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23401\/revisions\/26381"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=23401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}