Zimbabwe’s Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa today said the economy will grow by 2.7 percent in 2016, from 1.5 percent this year and plans to clear arrears to multilateral institutions in the first quarter next year to unlock funding for its stuttering economy.
The Zimbabwean government owes the IMF, World Bank and African Development Bank $1.8 billion and last month saw its plan to repay foreign creditors about $7 billion accepted which could lead to financiers resuming lending to the country next year.
Presenting the country’s 2016 budget Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa proposed a flat budget of $4 billion with revenue generation expected at $3.85 billion for a budget deficit of $150 million, about 1.1 percent of the GDP.
Recurrent expenditure is at nearly 92 percent, mostly to salaries for the State’s over 500 000 workers, who are expected to gobble $3.919 billion next year, Chinamasa said.
All sectors are seen growing by between 1.3 percent and 4.5 percent.
The economy will remain in deflation, with inflation expected at -1.2 percent in December next year.-The Source
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