ZIMBABWE has met all the conditions precedent to the repayment of debt arrears to the World Bank and the African Development Bank (AfDB), Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa has said.

In an update on the country’s re-engagement programme with the international finance bodies, he said clearing foreign debt was crucial in addressing country risk and attracting fresh lines of credit to oil economic growth.

The positive development comes after the country successfully settled its $107 million arrears to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on October 20, 2016. The AfDB and World Bank are both owed a combined $1.7 billion while the country also owes other multilateral institutions, bilateral official lenders and external private creditors.

“The terms and conditions of the facilities that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has put in place to repay the debt arrears to the World Bank and AfDB have been scrutinised and adjudged by the affected International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and found to be reflective of current market conditions with financing terms similar to market transactions recently concluded by several sub-Saharan African countries during 2016 and 2017,” said Minister Chinamasa.