INTERVIEW-World Bank ties Zimbabwe help to policy shift
By Charles Mangwiro
MALEMA, Mozambique, April 30 (Reuters) - International donors are ready to help Zimbabwe's ailing economy recover as soon as the government proves it is committed to economic and social change, a World Bank official said on Wednesday.
"Zimbabwe is in a bad situation and the reality is that many donors are ready to assist Zimbabwe once the government shows the commitment to the international community that they are willing to address the critical economic and social problems," said Michael Baxter, the World Bank's director in the region.
Baxter, who returned from an evaluation mission to Zimbabwe on Tuesday, said inflation in Zimbabwe -- the world's highest at 165,000 percent according to government figures -- was "realistically" at 200,000 percent. That figure is still far below estimates of other analysts.
He said the World Bank was prepared to offer emergency grants to help get the local economy back on its feet as soon as the government showed it was dedicated to reform.
Baxter did not comment on Zimbabwe's disputed presidential elections, in which opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai says he unseated veteran President Robert Mugabe. He was speaking about Zimbabwe's government in general terms.
"Once the government says 'we want to address seriously our economic and social challenges', many multilateral and bilateral donors are ready to support (Zimbabwe)," Baxter said.
"The first thing will be grants and not loans, because ... it's an emergency issue," said Baxter, who is also in charge of Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia and Angola for the Bank.
"We will put up a programme for emergency support and this will depend on the government's priorities. But at the moment, for us, it's food, health, supplies to small-scale farmers in the form of seeds and fertiliser, (and) the repair of water and sanitation infrastructures including electricity generation."
Zimbabwe -- which once boasted strong agricultural and manufacturing sectors -- has slowly descended into economic chaos over the past decade, weighing on regional development.
The country faces chronic shortages of food, water and fuel and has an unemployment rate of 80 percent.
About 3.5 million out of a population of 12 million Zimbabweans have fled the country since the late 1990's.
Baxter, who was speaking to Reuters by telephone from Maputo, said Zimbabwe's arrears to the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and the African Development Bank stood at $1.1 billion.
-- For a related news story, click on [ID:L30144940] (Writing by Caroline Drees; Editing by Jon Boyle)
