Zimbabwe's external debt has remained at four billion U.S. dollars over the past five years since the country could not gain offshore loans, the Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono said on Monday.

While presenting his mid-term monetary policy review, Gono said, however, the country has accumulated arrears of two billion U.S. dollars, noting the need of making efforts on repayment.

"As our economic performance improves, the government is thus urged to continue making regular repayments to the creditors so as to enhance the country's credit and relations with the international financial community," he said.

The external debt includes loans from the government, parastatals and the private sector of other nations.

Zimbabwe is not receiving balance of payment support due to the sanctions imposed by some Western countries over a land issue. Its domestic debt had risen by 327 percent from 11.7 trillion Zimbabwe dollars (117 million U.S. dollars) in June 2005 to 50 trillion Zimbabwe dollars (500 million US dollars) in mid-July 2006, Gono said.

Streamlining fiscal expenditure would help limit excessive borrowings from the domestic banking sector which tended to crowd out the financing of the country's productive sectors, Gono said. On parastatals, the governor urged the government to expedite the implementation of privatization program.

He also urged the country to substitute crude oil with other fuel given rising oil prices, and called for an implementation of the projects that would ensure self-sustenance in power, adding that the possibility of building up new electricity generation capacity at Gokwe North and Batoka in the Zambezi Valley should be exploited.

Source: Xinhua