Zimbabwe targets small deficits, falling inflation in budget speech

Zimbabwe is targeting small budget deficits and a sharp drop in inflation in the coming years, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said on Thursday.

Giving a budget speech in parliament, Ncube said the aim was for a deficit of 1.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2022 and 1.7% of GDP in 2023, compared to a shortfall of 0.5% of GDP this year.

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Average annual inflation is expected to fall from 94.6% in 2021 to 32.6% next year, a presentation showed.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has struggled to revive the Zimbabwean economy since ousting his former mentor Robert Mugabe in a November 2017 coup.

Although his administration has reversed some of Mugabe’s ruinous economic policies, millions are still trapped in poverty and dislocations, including an unofficial currency market, restrict business activity.

Mnangagwa has so far failed to achieve a breakthrough in efforts to improve relations with Western governments, which continue to accuse his government of human rights abuses and heavy-handed treatment of the opposition.