Zim predicts better growth
Zimbabwe expects higher economic growth of 3.7% this year, from an initial projection of 1.7% following a better than expected agriculture season, the finance minister was quoted as saying by a state-owned newspaper on Friday.
The southern African nation's economy stagnated last year following a devastating drought while its budget deficit exploded as President Robert Mugabe's administration struggled to pay its workers, which helped fan anti-government protests.
Patrick Chinamasa told military officers at the Zimbabwe Staff College in the capital, that agriculture would spur higher economic growth, with grain deliveries expected at 3 million tonnes, the highest since 1984, according to official data.
“I anticipate after the revision, our growth to be around 3.7% from 1.7% or so that we had anticipated in the 2017 national budget,” Chinamasa was quoted as saying by the state-owned Herald newspaper.
Zimbabwe received above normal rainfall during the 2016/17 agriculture season, following an El Nino-induced drought the year before that scorched crops and left more than 4 million people in need of food aid.
NAMPA/REUTERS
The southern African nation's economy stagnated last year following a devastating drought while its budget deficit exploded as President Robert Mugabe's administration struggled to pay its workers, which helped fan anti-government protests.
Patrick Chinamasa told military officers at the Zimbabwe Staff College in the capital, that agriculture would spur higher economic growth, with grain deliveries expected at 3 million tonnes, the highest since 1984, according to official data.
“I anticipate after the revision, our growth to be around 3.7% from 1.7% or so that we had anticipated in the 2017 national budget,” Chinamasa was quoted as saying by the state-owned Herald newspaper.
Zimbabwe received above normal rainfall during the 2016/17 agriculture season, following an El Nino-induced drought the year before that scorched crops and left more than 4 million people in need of food aid.
NAMPA/REUTERS
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