Journalist Corrects Mthuli Ncube On IMF's Staff-Monitored Programs

5 years agoTue, 16 Apr 2019 05:32:36 GMT

Journalist Corrects Mthuli Ncube On IMF's Staff-Monitored Programs

Award-winning journalist Hopewell Chin’ono says Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube is “mixing oranges and apples” in his remarks over the IMF Staff-Monitored Program (SMP).

Chin’ono was responding to a tweet by Ncube who wrote from the United States of America saying that SPM from the IMF would open up immediately financial inflows and help Zimbabwe stabilise the RTGS dollar. Said Chin’ono:

A staff-monitored program is an informal and flexible instrument for dialogue between the IMF staff and a member country on its economic policies.

Under a staff-monitored program, the country’s targets and policies are monitored by the IMF staff. Supervision of you like not bonanza!
A Staff Monitored Program is not supported by the use of the IMF’s financial resources; nor is it subject to the endorsement of the Executive Board of the IMF.
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So Prof you are mixing apples and oranges, and dancing all over the place! Only production will fix all the stuff you said.

A social media user, the name Jackie Sande aked Chin’ono to elaborate on his comments. She said:

Break it down further into simpler terms: is it a good thing or a bad thing. I absolutely don’t think the RTGS should strengthen but it should weaken further until it is in line with regional currencies, there’s no need for Prof to tell us that it will.

In his elaborating on what the SMP is, and is not, Chin’ono further said:

A Staff Monitored Program Tete (my sister) is an agreement to be AUDITED by the International Monetary Fund to ensure that we are FOLLOWING policies that the IMF has suggested and we have agreed to.
Now we are a bit like an alcoholic who has signed up with Alcoholics Anonymus and is celebrating the signature. We have had two previous Staff Monitored Programs.

In the tweet that ignited the debate, Ncube had written:

The SMP from IMF has opened doors for immediate foreign financial inflows to support Cyclone Idai recovery efforts, and help mobilize a global financial package for arrears clearance, and create a stable currency for Zimbabwe. The RTGS$ would stabilize and even strengthen.