Late budget suggests all is not well for Zimbabwe

via Late budget suggests all is not well for Zimbabwe | The Zimbabwean by Nelson Sibanda 20.11.13

Delays by finance minister Patrick Chinamasa in announcing the national 2014 budget have sent signals to the nation that all is not well with the economy.

Economic analysts and ordinary citizens suspect that Chinamasa may have deferred announcing the budget to January next year because his purse is empty.

However, others commended the delay as “it would give government sufficient time to consider all the input collected during consultations with stakeholders”.

Announcing the postponement, Chinamasa said he wanted enough time for consultations before coming up with a realistic and sustainable budget.

Traditionally, government announces the budget in October to set the tone for the following year’s economic activity.

Former minister of finance Tendai Biti told The Zimbabwean that his budgets during the GNU used to be on time because he ran ministry programmes as scheduled.

He said he did not know the reasons behind the postponement of Chinamasa’s budget, but need for more consultations was not one of the causes.

Current efforts by government to engage with institutions such as the African Development Bank and IMF were seen as a desperate initiative to secure budget support.