Zimbabwe defaults on debt servicing (fwd)

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

Zimbabwe defaults on debt servicing
by ZIMBABWE (Sorry, source for this is unclear, but it cites clear
sources)
Date: Friday, 5/28/99

EXCERPT

Michael Hartnack

HARARE - Zimbabwe has failed to pay interest due on its international debt
for the first time since independence in 1980, according to a letter from
World Bank president James Wolfensohn to his International Monetary Fund
(IMF) counterpart, published in the Zimbabwe Financial Gazette yesterday.

"A new foreign exchange crisis is likely after the tobacco export earnings
fizzle out (later this year)," Wolfensohn wrote to the IMF's Michel
Camdessus.

"The financial crisis is worsening. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe is
running out of foreign exchange, and the country is defaulting on several
commercial and concessional loans."

The Financial Gazette said it had a copy of Wolfensohn's letter.