TITLE:
Obstacles and Opportunities for Financing the Fight against Covid-19 in the Debt Trapped Zimbabwe
AUTHORS:
Gorden Moyo
KEYWORDS:
Covid-19, Debt Relief, Domestic Resource Mobilisation, Financing Gap, Public Finance Management, Special Drawing Rights, Zimbabwe
JOURNAL NAME:
iBusiness,
Vol.12 No.2,
June
23,
2020
ABSTRACT: The coronavirus aka Covid-19
pandemic arrived in Zimbabwe at a time when the country was in the throes of
its worst economic turmoil in recent years. Within months of its arrival, the
pandemic has already upended the public healthcare system, eroded the
livelihoods of millions of people, and further deepened the economic headwinds
in the country. Apparently, Zimbabwe has been in a crisis mode since the
beginning of the 21st Century. As such, the pandemic has added an
extra burden to the country that is already creaking under mounting weight of
external debt peonage, fiscal deficit, liquidity crisis, and international
isolation among many other social and economic ills. In this context, the
country faces an uphill task in mobilising financial and non-financial
resources in order to contain the coronavirus crisis. This article therefore
sets out to examine the obstacles and opportunities for financing the fight
against Covid-19 pandemic within a discursive context of a debt trapped
Southern African country.