Hi Maurice, Mugabe continues to be stubborn, which is bullish for ZIM, because he will fall because of his inability to read the environment and the market, setting up for a bull market when conditions change, when he is no more.
news.ft.com
Mugabe rejects aid in return for reform
By Our Harare Correspondent
Published: July 23 2002 20:09 | Last Updated: July 23 2002 20:09
President Robert Mugabe on Tuesday rejected donor calls for economic and human rights reforms in Zimbabwe as conditions for food aid, blaming "British machinations" and drought for the country's worsening economic crisis.
Opposition MPs walked out of the debating chamber as Mr Mugabe delivered his speech at the opening of a new session of parliament, during which he described his land resettlement programme as "an unparalleled success story". The president's remarks are seen as a reply to last week's UN appeal to donors for $285m (£181m), mostly in food aid, to avert famine in Zimbabwe. The UN report said Zimbabwe needed to import at least 1.3m tonnes of food and warned of "a serious risk of famine and loss of life in coming months".
The UN said drought and the Aids epidemic had contributed to the crisis, but "policy choices are at the heart of the problem". Zimbabwe has the world's second highest rate of Aids infections, estimated at 33.7 per cent of the adult population. "Macroeconomic instability" was one of the fundamental causes of the crisis, according to the UN.
It called on the Mugabe government to abolish the state monopoly on grain imports, lift price controls, devalue the official exchange rate, raise interest rates and tackle inflation, averaging 116 per cent so far this year.
It also called for the restoration of the rule of law in rural areas and the removal of illegal squatters from commercial farms.
But on Monday Mr Mugabe rejected what he called "any attempts to use the present drought relief effort to smuggle in failed and inappropriate International Monetary Fund policies which we know have exacerbated our vulnerability".
In a thinly veiled attack on his own finance minister and central bank governor, both of whom have advocated devaluing the Zimbabwe dollar, the president said: "Devaluation is dead and can only be advocated by saboteurs and enemies." |
