Zimbabwe Economy In
Bright Outlook
Zimbabwe
says its battered economy is on track to expand for the first
time in a decade next year.
It projects a growth of 7 percent in Year 2010 as key sectors
such as agriculture and mining start to recover.
On Wednesday, Finance Minister Tendai Biti delivered the first
full budget since a unity government was set up 10 months ago
between President Robert Mugabe and his opponents to try to end
a crippling economic and political crisis.
"In 2010 we are working on the assumption that the GDP will grow
by 7 percent," Biti said.
Biti said Zimbabwe's economy is expected to grow by a
better-than-expected 4.7 percent this year.
"The economy was originally set to grow by 3.7 percent but we
are now expecting it to grow by 4.7 percent compared to a 10.9
percent decline in 2008,…This is on the back of improved
performance in agriculture, mining, manufacturing and tourism,"
Biti he told parliament.
Zimbabwe is battling to reconstruct the economy that the
government estimates contracted by nearly 50 percent from Year
2000 to 2008.
The global economic downturn and smouldering tensions in the
power-sharing government of President Mugabe and his arch rival
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, have made reconstruction
efforts difficult.
Biti said government revenues were improving from around $4
million in March to $90 million in June.
Total revenues for the period March to October were $685
million, below the government's estimate of $789.8 million.
He said $210 million of a $510 million International Monetary
Fund allocation, part of the IMF's global assistance package to
countries to help them cope with the worldwide financial crisis,
would be spend on infrastructure.
The IMF allocation is the first major foreign aid Zimbabwe has
received in a decade after Mugabe's ZANU-PF party fell out with
Western donors over its policies.
REUTERS/Yinka
