The International Monetary Fund, IMF, is giving Zimbabwe $400 million to boost its foreign currency reserves. However, a further $100 million will be kept in a special account and Zimbabwe's government will not have access to it until it has cleared $1 billion in debts.

Zimbabwe's financial crisis has been partially blamed on mismanagement of central bank funds. Zimbabwe owes money to the IMF and other international creditors.

The IMF said it made a deposit of 262 million special drawing rights, SDRs, ($409 million), the IMF's own unit of currency, to Zimbabwe's account with the IMF. It said there would be no conditions attached to this allocation of funds. However, it said 66 million SDRs ($103 million) would be held in an escrow account until its arrears had been cleared.

The funding is part of an agreement reached at the G20 Summit in London in April, which pledged to strengthen the IMF's reserves by $250 billion. All 186 members of the IMF will receive funding in relation to their IMF quota or voting rights.