Beyond Recovery
From Benson Ndlovu in Harare
Zimbabwe's economy could be damaged beyond recovery.
The shattered economy may not be able to recover for generations even if democracy is restored soon for a simply reason that harm done by Mugabe’s government has been severe.
With a world record inflation of 15000 percent, it is likely that the state of the economy could be reduced further to tatters reminiscent of an economy in a war zone. There are also fears that the harm done do Zimbabwe’s economy could be permanent and irreparable as well.
Analysts are predicting another tougher year attributable to increased government expenditure on military, central intelligence organization and home affairs ahead of the next year’s presidential elections.
The recent national budget is disastrous and devoid of any materiality and any course of action to try and resurrect the economy.
The Finance minister Samuel Mubengegwi presented a ZW $ 7,800 trillion budget for 2008 which is dominated by expenditures on non productive sectors of the economy and barely nothing regarding sectors which could set the tone for revival of the economy such as Agriculture and Mining.
This year, a shocking ZW $87,9 trillion budget was allocated to the CIO, Defense got a whooping ZW $374,3 trillion , home affairs got ZW $ 339,6 trillion.
This figure represented almost 70 percent of the budget. With this kind of budget that has no action plan to see the revival of the economy the statement by the Minister of Finance Cde Samuel Mubengegwi that the economy would grow by 4 percent in the next coming season seems pretty much a fallacy .
The minister of Finance’s failure to address issues of food shortages which negatively affecting the economy manifests a lack of concern to the cries and hardships that are bedeviling Zimbabweans in the way of provision and availability of basic commodities
N.B Mr Benson Ndlovu is an economist in Harare.