That left no choice but to ask the donors for cash. We will be approaching the international community.
_______________________________
On the next day:
You journalists are mischievous and malicious – the point I was making was that the Zimbabwean government doesn’t have the funds to finance the election.
To dramatise the point, I simply made a passing reference metaphorically that when we paid civil servants last week on Thursday we were left with $217… but even the following day we had $30 million in our account.
Zimbabwe’s bank balance stands at $217
ReplyDeleteGovernment account stands at $217 after paying public workers’ salaries last week, the finance minister has said.
Al Jazeera
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2013/01/2013130134525141101.html
The balance in cash-strapped Zimbabwe’s government public account has fallen to just $217 after paying public workers’ salaries last week, Tendai Biti, the country’s finance minister has said.
“Last week when we paid civil servants there was $217 (left) in government coffers,” Biti told journalists in the capital Harare on Tuesday, claiming some of the workers had healthier bank balances than the state.
“The government finances are in paralysis state at the present moment. We are failing to meet our targets.”
Zimbabwe’s economy plummeted at the turn of the millennium, after President Robert Mugabe began seizing white-owned farms.
The move demolished investor confidence in the country, paralysed production, prompted international sanctions and repelled tourists.
But after more than a decade – in which the country suffered hyper-inflation of 231 million percent and infrastructure that crumbled as quickly as prices went up – the situation is now more stable.
However, public finances remain a mess and local business battles against unstable electricity supplies, lack of liquidity and high labour costs.
Zimbabwe’s government has warned it does not have enough money to fund a constitutional referendum and elections expected this year.
Biti said that left no choice but to ask the donors for cash.
“We will be approaching the international community,” he said.
The country’s elections agency said it requires $104m to organise the vote.
Government’s national budget for this year stands at $3.8b and the economy is projected to grow 5.0 percent.
The mineral rich country is now using the US dollar and the South African rand.
(Zimbabwe’s economy crumbled at the turn of the millennium, after President Mugabe seized white-owned farms.)
Zimbabwe’s finance minister says country only had £138 in state account
ReplyDeleteMetro
Zimbabwe’s finance minister has made a stark revelation about the state of the country’s finances, admitting that at one point last week the country only had $217 (£138) to its name.
http://metro.co.uk/2013/01/30/zimbabwes-finance-minister-says-country-only-had-138-in-state-account-3375097/
According to Tendai Biti, who is in charge of the country’s money, the accounts were threadbare after wage payments were made to civil servants.
But the finance minister has since criticised the media for taking his comments out of context.
‘You journalists are mischievous and malicious – the point I was making was that the Zimbabwean government doesn’t have the funds to finance the election, to finance the referendum,’ he told BBC’s Focus on Africa radio show.
‘To dramatise the point, I simply made a passing reference metaphorically that when we paid civil servants last week on Thursday we were left with $217… but even the following day we had $30million (£13.5million) in our account.’
Mr Biti’s party, Movement for Democratic Change, is due to contest an election this year against the Zanu-PF group, which is led by president Robert Mugabe.
But in order for the voting to take place, as well as a decision on a new referendum to be decided, Zimbabwe needs around $200million (£127million).