IMF team to visit Mozambique amid concerns over debt

JOHANNESBURG – A team from the International Monetary Fund will travel next week to Mozambique, which is struggling to reassure investors after the revelation earlier this year of at least $1.4 billion in hidden debt.

The IMF suspended financial aid to the southern African country after learning about the undisclosed borrowing, and has demanded an international audit.

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi expressed willingness to resolve the problem in a meeting Thursday in Washington with IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde.

IMF spokesman Gerry Rice says the IMF team will look at Mozambique’s 2016 revised budget and monetary policy measures recently adopted by the central bank. The team visits Sept. 22.

The IMF has said the previously undisclosed loans pushed total debt at the end of 2015 to 86 per cent of Mozambique’s GDP.