{"id":14943,"date":"2012-09-26T04:54:43","date_gmt":"2012-09-26T02:54:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/09\/zimbabwes-rapid-growth-seen-slowing-to-5-pct\/"},"modified":"2012-09-26T04:54:43","modified_gmt":"2012-09-26T02:54:43","slug":"zimbabwes-rapid-growth-seen-slowing-to-5-pct","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/zimbabwes-rapid-growth-seen-slowing-to-5-pct\/","title":{"rendered":"Zimbabwe&#8217;s rapid growth seen slowing to 5 pct"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"articleLocation\">WASHINGTON, Sept 25<\/span> (Reuters) &#8211; After two years of high<br \/>\ngrowth Zimbabwe&#8217;s economy is set to slow to 5 percent this year<br \/>\namid a poor farming season blamed on erratic rainfall and<br \/>\nconcerns about upcoming elections, the International Monetary<br \/>\nFund said on Tuesday.<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Zimbabwe&#8217;s economy grew at a rapid clip of 9.6 percent in<br \/>\n2010 and 9.4 percent last year as the country rebounded from a<br \/>\ndecade-long recession widely blamed on the policies of long-time<br \/>\nPresident Robert Mugabe.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>In its annual review of the Zimbabwean economy, the IMF said<br \/>\ngrowth should moderate over the medium-term to average about 4<br \/>\npercent, although electricity supply problems and tight<br \/>\nliquidity conditions could pose problems.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The IMF said Zimbabwe&#8217;s current account deficit is projected<br \/>\nto narrow to 20.5 percent of gross domestic product in 2012, as<br \/>\na spike in imports in 2011 is reversed and exports continue to<br \/>\nexpand.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The IMF said Zimbabwe carries a heavy debt burden with total<br \/>\nexternal debt estimated at $10.7 billion, or 113.5 percent of<br \/>\nGDP, at end-2011, of which 67 percent of GDP are in arrears.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The large debt overhang remains a serious impediment to<br \/>\nmedium-term fiscal and external sustainability,&#8221; the IMF said.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Two salary increases for civil servants since 2011 raised<br \/>\nemployment costs by 22 percent, and was compounded by an<br \/>\nincrease in employee allowances and unbudgeted recruitment.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>With elections expected later this year or next, there are<br \/>\nconcerns about a repeat of violence that marred the 2008<br \/>\npresidential poll. Mugabe, 88, has held onto power since<br \/>\nindependence from Britain in 1980 and is blamed for running the<br \/>\neconomy into the ground and for massive human rights abuses.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The West has imposed sanctions on Mugabe and his allies,<br \/>\naccusing them of election violence and using state security<br \/>\nagents to beat up and detain opponents.<br \/>\n\u00a0 <span class=\"label\"><strong>Continued&#8230;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON, Sept 25 (Reuters) &#8211; After two years of high growth Zimbabwe&#8217;s economy is set to slow to 5 percent this year amid a poor farming season blamed on erratic rainfall and concerns about upcoming elections, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday. Zimbabwe&#8217;s economy grew at a rapid clip of 9.6 percent in 2010 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-14943","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14943\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}