HARARE - Zimbabwean Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa unveiled a national budget for 2004 on Thursday which analysts said offered little hope of quick recovery for an economy facing its worst crisis in history.
Following are some of the highlights of the budget:
- Economic growth is expected to shrink by 8.5 percent in 2004, slowing down from a revised contraction of 13.2 percent in gross domestic product (GDP) for 2003.
- Inflation, which soared to 526 percent in October from 208 percent in January, was described as the country's "number one enemy." Murerwa said the inflation rate was expected to shoot to 700 percent in the first quarter of 2004, before starting to subside. He gave no further estimates.
- There were no firm proposals on how the government intends to tackle chronic foreign currency, fuel and short-term food shortages.
- Instead Murerwa said the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe would announce a new monetary policy in mid-December detailing, among others, proposals on foreign exchange management, interest rates and the management of money supply to help slow down inflation.
- Murerwa said the government would introduce value-added tax from January 1, 2004, and estimated the country's budget deficit would remain unchanged at around 7.5 percent of GDP.
- Murerwa announced several but mostly small tax concessions for workers and pensioners. But he maintained the corporate tax rate at 30 percent.