Zimbabwe Uses Platinum to Pay Back $400 Million Afrexim Bank Debt
- Nation has limited access to credit lines for over 20 years
- Talks with creditors expected to resume in January next year
The entrance gates at a platinum mine, near Harare.
Photographer: Godfrey Marawanyika/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Zimbabwe is using the proceeds of its platinum exports to settle a $400 million loan from the African Export-Import Bank as the indebted nation turns to its mineral wealth to open lines of credit.
The southern African nation’s reliance on its platinum resources to secure borrowing underscores the difficulty Zimbabwe faces in getting loans from international financiers. The country is saddled with $18 billion of debt and remains ineligible to new lines of credit from multilateral lenders including the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the African Development Bank.