World Bank suspends Zimbabwe loans

The World Bank has suspended all new loans to Zimbabwe because the country has failed to keep up with repayments on money previously borrowed.

Interest rates in Zimbabwe are at seventy per cent, inflation is expected to average around fifty per cent this year and half the workforce is unemployed.

The occupation of white-owned farms has also badly damaged an already troubled economy. The World Bank lends countries like Zimbabwe money for infrastructure projects, such as roads, rural development and agriculture.

But a Bank spokesman refused to say how much had been lent to Zimbabwe or by how much it had fallen behind in its repayments.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service