PRETORIA, South Africa (Reuters):

Zimbabwe's economic woes could be reversed if the southern African country implements monetary and fiscal reforms recommended by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), a regional IMF official said on Monday.

Zimbabwe is in its eighth year of recession, marked by the world's highest inflation and chronic shortages of fuel, food and foreign currency that critics blame on poor policies and mismanagement by President Robert Mugabe's government.

"The good news is that can be reversed. It can be reversed if the Zimbabwe authorities take the appropriate steps to address the issues that affect the economy," Abdoulaye Bio-Tchane, head of the IMF's Africa office, told a conference in Pretoria, South Africa. "We are addressing them on the steps that should be taken."

He gave no specific details of the IMF's suggested remedies but said it could include "lifting non-fiscal measures that are clearly hurting money supply, and of course, inflation."

Asked if the IMF was helping to pull Zimbabwe out of its economic troubles, he said: "We have said many times what needs to be done on the fiscal front, what needs to be done on the monetary front and what needs to be done on the social side."