Gibson Mhaka
VICE President Dr Constantino Chiwenga has warned illegal foreign currency dealers over their gross financial misconduct that continues to disrupt the journey to prudent economic growth saying the long arm of the law would soon catch up with them.
VP Chiwenga, who is also Minister of Health and Child Care, issued the chilling warning while officially opening the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) International Business Conference today.
He said indiscipline on the parallel market continued to stir up negative expectations that undermined the impressive efforts being made by the monetary authorities adding that it was also a stumbling block to the attainment of a 2030 goal of an Empowered and Prosperous Upper Middle-Income Society.
“Inflation has been on the decline with the year-on-year-rate falling to 56 percent and forecast to be much lower by year end. This is underpinned by a strong macro-economic framework and close coordination between the fiscal and monetary authorities as demonstrated by the sustained fiscal discipline and tight monetary conditions.
“Furthermore, the operationalisation of the foreign currency auction system has set us firmly on the path to price and exchange rate stability, the drawback which we continued to face is indiscipline on the parallel market which continued to stir up negative expectations that undermined the impressive efforts by the monetary authorities.
“I wish to warn the perpetrators of this heinous crime that the long arm of the law will soon catch up with them so those who are practising it be warned,” said VP Chiwenga.
Dr Chiwenga said the International Business Conference came at a time when Government had shown steadfast commitment to sustaining the economic reform momentum through the National Development Strategy 1: 2021-2025 (NDS1).
“The NDS1 was crafted to shift the focus from austerity to growth. Accordingly, ever since the implementation of the NDS1 started the focus has shifted to attaining price stability and growth through increased production and productivity. As a result, increase in capacity utilisation has been witnessed in most businesses despite the incidence of Covid-19.
“The Second Republic will carry the growth to trajectory set in the NDS1 through to 2030 by a successor NDS2 which will cover the period 2026 to 2030,” said Dr Chiwenga.
He adds: “The economy is on a rebound and expected to grow by 7,8 percent this year. The growth is driven by a strong recovery in all sectors of the economy led by agriculture, mining, manufacturing, construction, transport and communication as well as finance and insurance.”
VP Chiwenga said funds which the Government received under the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) would be disbursed prudently to support key social and economic programmes that would in future assure the nation of sustained all round development which leaves no one behind.
The high-level business indaba which was held by ZITF in conjunction with the National Economic Consultative Forum (NECF) is a critical feature of the annual trade event.
