Washington, Feb 20 (DPA) The International Monetary Fund (IMF) Friday elected to make Zimbabwe a full voting member, seven years after suspending its voting rights over a failure to pay back loans.
But Zimbabwe will still only have limited access to the IMF’s lending facilities. Zimbabwe paid back some of its outstanding loans in 2006, but the impoverished African country still owes the IMF about $140 million.
Zimbabwe has been trying to repair its image abroad since long-time President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party entered into an uneasy coalition with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in February 2009.
The coalition has been been fraught with difficulties. Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, the former opposition leader, has repeatedly accused Mugabe of refusing to appoint MDC officials to senior government posts.
