Economic reforms get global recognition
Finance and Economic Development Minister Mthuli Ncube has been ranked in the top five group of ministers of Finance in Africa for the year 2021 by an international publication “Financial Afrik”.
Acknowledging the recognition on his Twitter handle, Minister Ncube said the ranking was based on a popular vote and qualitative analysis of candidates and considered by a jury.
“I am very pleased to have been voted and ranked in the top 5 Ministers of Finance in Africa in 2021 by the French publication “Financial Afrik”.
“….Finance Ministers ranked in Financial Afrik includes those of Mauritania, Benin, Nigeria, Zimbabwe and DRC. These ministers were judged to have implemented transformative economic policies with results,” he said.
Minister Ncube in 2020, launched the five-year National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1), which was a successor programme to the Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP) to which notable achievements were made, in particular the restoration of external and internal macro-economic stability.
NDS1 implies the second phase of the road to Vision 2030, whose goal is to achieve accelerated inclusive, socio-economic growth through social transformation.
The economy met its initial GDP growth target of 7,4 percent for 2021 as it closed the year with a growth of 7,8 percent.
The World Bank also recently said the country’s economy grew 5,1 percent in 2021, higher than the initially projected 3,9 percent, mainly boosted by higher agricultural production, improved capacity utilisation in industry, and stabilisation of prices and exchange rates.
The Bank also noted that Zimbabwe’s annual inflation will remain at two-digit levels in 2022 and 2023 if the government continues the implementation of disinflation policies and fine tuning of the foreign exchange auction market.
On the fiscal front, the Government thrust was to maintain prudence by keeping deficits under control and reducing public debt to below 70 percent of GDP.
This was anchored on strengthening revenue collection efforts through reviewing and streamlining tax incentives, formalising the informal sector, upgrading of the audit and tax services of large taxpayers, as well as linking ZIMRA systems with other agencies.
On the expenditure side, the strategy was to strictly adhere to the approved budget and stop accumulation of arrears, review the subsidy policy to ensure better targeting, fast track State Enterprise and Parastatal reforms and roll out of the Public Finance Management System to ensure full utilisation.-The Herald
