Just as Zimbabwe is being told to applaud single-digit inflation, reality has arrived in the form of court papers. Libya’s central bank has taken Zimbabwe’s finance minister Mthuli Ncube and the National Oil Infrastructure Company of Zimbabwe to the UK High Court, seeking more than US$100 million in unpaid debt. That debt has survived multiple administrations, currency resets and economic narratives, quietly compounding in the background. Zimbabwe’s reported talks to repay Trafigura Group with gold and nickel point to a country short of cash and credibility. Debt, unlike inflation, does not respond to optimism.