* Economy remains depressed, Biti says
* Appeals for $150 mln from South Africa, Angola
* Seeking $350 mln Chinese loan to boost power output
By Nelson Banya
HARARE, Sept 6 (Reuters) – Zimbabwe is turning to South
Africa and Angola for help in plugging a $400 million hole in
its budget, Finance Minister Tendai Biti said on Thursday,
lamenting a lack of foreign investment and aid from its
traditional Western donors.
The southern African country’s economy is recovering under a
coalition government formed in 2009 by President Robert Mugabe
and his rival, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, but is still
suffering the hangover of a decade-long recession widely blamed
on Mugabe policies such as the seizure of white-owned farms.
Biti, who slashed Zimbabwe’s 2012 GDP growth forecast last
month from 9.4 percent to 5.6 percent due to a poor harvest and
lack of donor funding, said Harare would seek at least $150
million from South Africa and Angola.
“I have secured an important appointment with South Africa’s
minister of finance two weeks from now,” he told a news
conference. “In this meeting we are going to make a request for
budgetary support to the tune of $100 million.”
Harare was also in advanced talks for a $50 million credit
line from oil-rich Angola, he said.
Continued…
