Source: IMF bullish on Zim growth | The Herald April 21, 2017
Business Reporter—
THE International Monetary Fund has reviewed upwards its economic projection for Zimbabwe to 2 percent from its earlier forecast of minus 2,5 percent made late last year. The latest growth forecast by the Bretton Woods institution, however, falls conservatively short of the more upbeat revised economic growth forecast by Zimbabwe for the year. Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa revised his 2017 growth forecast to 3,7 percent last month citing an anticipated bumper harvest on the back of a good rainy and farming season. The initial growth projection was 1,7 percent.
Minister Chinamasa said the good harvest for 2017, anchored on Command Agriculture where Government invested just under $200 million, would spur economic growth.
Minister Chinamasa told military officers at the Zimbabwe Staff College in Harare last month, that agriculture would spur economic growth, with grain deliveries expected at 3 million tonnes, the highest production for Zimbabwe in decades.
“I anticipate after the revision, our growth to be around 3,7 percent from 1,7 percent or so that we had anticipated in the 2017 national budget,” the minister said.
And in its latest report titled “Global Economic Outlook for 2017” released this month, the IMF projected that the domestic economic would this year expand by 2 percent.
The IMF is also bullish about the 2017 global growth and has reviewed world output projections upwards from the 3,1 percent announced in its October 2016 outlook to 3,5 percent.
The global lender forecast that world economy growth will be anchored by buoyant financial markets, long awaited cyclical recovery in manufacturing and trade.
“Conditions in commodity exporters experiencing macroeconomic strains are gradually expected to improve, supported by the partial recovery in commodity prices, while growth is projected to remain strong in China and many other commodity importers” IMF said.
The outlook says metal prices have been firming, supported by higher real estate investment, capacity reduction efforts in China and anticipated fiscal policy easing in the US.
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