Zimbabwe cbank says approves $1.5 bln lines of credit
Wed Jul 20, 2011 10:16am GMT
HARARE, July 20 (Reuters) – Zimbabwe’s central bank has approved $1.5
billion this year in foreign lines of credit sourced by local banks, mostly
to fund the agriculture and manufacturing sectors, Governor Gideon Gono said
on Wednesday.
The African country’s economy is growing again after a decade of collapse
marked by hyper inflation and foreign currency shortages, which forced most
companies to shut down.
“We have as of July 17 approved $1.5 billion in lines of credit mostly for
tobacco, cotton as well as to support industry and commerce,” Gono told a
meeting of bankers and industry executives.
Gono said the banks, which need central bank approval to negotiate lines of
credit above $5 million, had secured the funding from foreign financial
institutions.
Zimbabwean firms say they have struggled to secure funding to boost
production and that banks charge high interest rates for loans while
demanding repayment over too short a space of time.
Foreign lenders like the International Monetary Fund and World Bank and
foreign investors have withheld their support, to press the government into
implementing more political reforms.
President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai formed a unity
government in 2009 which is credited with stabilising the economy but their
two parties are still deeply divided over reforms and economic policy.