via Restore confidence, IMF tells govt 23/10/2014
THE government needs to restore confidence in the country as its economy will only grow by a meagre 3.2 percent next year, the International Monetary Fund said Thursday.
“With regard to Zimbabwe, economic conditions remain difficult,” IMF director for Africa Antoinette Sayeh told a news conference.
Zimbabwe will thus lag behind the sub-Saharan Africa region, which is forecast to expand by an average of five percent this year and 5.75 percent next year according to the IMF.
The government had projected a 6.4 percent growth this year but revised the figure downwards to 3.1 percent, citing depressed mineral output.
Sayeh said she “highlighted four issues that are key to helping fast-track the country’s policy reform agenda” during her meetings with Zimbabwean officials
These included “restoring confidence and stability in Zimbabwe’s financial sector … and enhancing the business environment with a view to attracting investments” as well as balancing spending in order to begin addressing the country’s debt challenge.
Zimbabwe’s economy has been in a tailspin for more than a decade, only able to manage slow growth at best that has done little to reduce high unemployment.
The country owes domestic and foreign creditors $9 billion, and a controversial law limiting foreign ownership enacted by President Robert Mugabe in 2007 has spooked international investors.
But critics complain that the law and the frequent amendments to it have been a key factor in hobbling the country’s once vibrant economy.
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