HARARE/JOHANNESBURG: Zimbabwe has agreed a staff-monitored programme with the International Monetary Fund, a senior official said on Friday, a tentative first step on the way to a closer engagement with the Fund and an eventual loan programme.
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.
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”.
“The programme is to consolidate current fiscal and monetary policy reforms,” he said.
An SMP does not entail financial assistance or endorsement by the IMF’s Executive Board.
“The SMP is intended to establish a credible track record that supports the authorities’ re-engagement efforts and complements their broader strategy toward arrears clearance and debt restructuring, including eventual access to external concessional financing,” said IMF mission chief Wojciech Maliszewski in a statement.
Decades of hyperinflation
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.
The Ministry of Finance has pointed to recent progress in the country’s macroeconomic backdrop.
In 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 U.S. dollar inflation fell to 1% year-on-year.
Data 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.
But in order to secure much-needed fresh financing from international partners, Zimbabwe has to clear its arrears.
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.
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.
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.
“This agreement serves as a critical step toward arrears clearance and debt resolution,” the firm said in a statement.
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