Staff reporter

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has reaffirmed his Government’s commitment toward clearing the country’s outstanding debt arrears to both international and domestic creditors.

Writing on his weekly Sunday Mail column, President Mnangagwa said that Zimbabwe's total national debt stood at US$17, 5 billion of which US$14.04 billion was owed to international creditors.

The President acknowledged that the country’s international debts had been a hindrance to the quick realisation of Vision 2030 of an Upper Middle Income economy status.

 “This debt overhang has tended to hold us back in our bid to speedily realise our national ambitions towards Vision 2030. For that reason, it is vitally important that I engage representatives of creditor nations and institutions in Sharma el Sheikh during the forthcoming visit. Such engagement will send positive signals to all our economic players here at home, and to most of our development partners,” said President Mnangagwa.

Additionally, President Mnangagwa said that the challenges bedevilling the country were temporary and measures were being put in place to resolve the challenges.

 “All these are temporary challenges which any economy in transition is likely to face, more so given the ensuing turbulences in the global economy. We have already announced measures to stabilise our currency and, with it, prices of basic goods and services. This effort is made easier by the self-evident fact that all the fundamentals in our economy are firm and on sound footing,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Government in December 2022, established a structured dialogue platform with all creditors and development partners, to institutionalise structured dialogue on economic and governance reforms to underpin the arrears clearance and debt resolution.