Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa has asked why the country is in such a mess when fundamentals point the other direction, arguing that countries with less foreign currency earnings than Zimbabwe have more stable currencies while that of Zimbabwe continues tumbling.
Writing in his weekly column in the Sunday Mail, Mnangagwa said his government was committed to defending value in the economy so there is no return to the horrors of 2008 and 2019.
“Negative politics based on the-worse-it-gets-the-better opposition syndrome has no place in boardrooms. Anyone keen to run for office should leave the boardroom and the market to join us in politics,” he said.
“We will not countenance politicians in business suits. The Zimbabwean economy is too important and meant for all citizens to be manipulated by undeclared princes seeking political power.”
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In 2021, our economy earned more than US$9.68 billion from exports. By contrast, the US$100 billion Kenyan economy earned US$6.74 billion for the same period.
Our economy is a quarter the size of the Kenyan economy.
We import far less than Kenya, while earning more from our exports than Kenya.
Our population is less than half that of Kenya.
Yet Kenya’s currency is more stable than ours.
We have already earned US$2.4 billion in the first quarter, up from USD2.04 billion we managed same time last year.
This is a 15 percent growth from last year, meaning our exports continue to grow.
Our imports have been severely compressed, with our auction system prioritising re-equipping our industry for greater capacity utilisation.
The impact has been telling, with more than 80 percent of goods on our shelves being locally manufactured, and our industry reaching over 66 percent capacity utilisation.
Together with our Special Drawing Rights, SDR, we hold US$1.1 billion in foreign currency reserves, much higher than at any time in the past 10 years, including under the Government of National Unity, GNU.
Foreign Currency Deposits have grown to US$1.8 billion, vindicating the reforms we instituted in the financial sector, which have improved the confidence of depositors, and brought greater stability in our banking sector.
It is a record figure we have not had in many years.
We have pursued a tight fiscal policy, which has translated into a surplus position we have not had since Independence.
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