Zimbabwe’s economic crisis ‘troubles Zanu-PF’

via Economic crisis ‘troubles Zanu-PF’ | News24 2014-05-14

The Zimbabwean government is reportedly set to launch a new economic strategy to halt a slide into a deeper economic crisis.

According to the Daily News, officials within the ruling Zanu-PF said the party would aim at attracting foreign direct investment and subsequently the expansion of production capacities in the industrial sector.

This comes a few weeks after the country’s finance minister Patrick Chinamasa admitted Zimbabwe was faced with grave economic challenges and alluded to the fact that there was need for foreign direct investment.

According to Xinhua, Chinamasa said Zimbabwe will not enforce policies that might cause confrontation with foreign investors.

High unemployment levels

Chinamasa was quoted as saying Zimbabwe was too small to pursue a policy of confrontation, adding that the country would look for mutually beneficial economic relationships.

The country’s new central bank chief also recently said Zimbabwe’s economy was weakening and the bank did not have the tools to fix it.

John Mangudya was quoted by an AFP report as saying the past three years had been tough for the economy and for many Zimbabweans. 

Zimbabwe is saddled with high unemployment levels and a dearth of foreign investment.

Many companies have closed down and those still operating are often unable to pay each other for services or meet loan commitments to banks. At the same time the tax base is narrowing and tax revenues plummeting, said the report.