Zimbabwe has $217 in the bank: finance minister
Posted by: Jekesai Njikizana Posted date : January 29, 2013 at 4:55 pmIn: politics
HARARE (AFP)
After paying public workers’ salaries last week, the balance in cash-strapped Zimbabwe’s government public account stood at just $217, Finance Minister Tendai Biti said Tuesday.
“Last week when we paid civil servants there was $217 (left) in government coffers,” Biti told journalists in the capital Harare, claiming some of them 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 went into free-fall 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 scared off tourists.
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.
But 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 $104 million to organise the vote.
Government’s national budget for this year stands at $3.8 billion 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.
I Have More Money Than Zimbabwe!
I Have More Money Than Zimbabwe!
http://en.starafrica.com/news/zimbabwe- ... ister.html
Your collective inability to acknowledge this obvious truth makes you all look like fools.
yrs,
rubato
Re: I Have More Money Than Zimbabwe!
They ought to check Mugabe's bank accounts....
Zimbabwe’s government has warned it does not have enough money to fund a constitutional referendum and elections expected this year.
Re: I Have More Money Than Zimbabwe!
I was working for a white farmer from Zimbabwe he was always telling us how the Mugabe supporters forced him and his wife and children off their farm. He lost everything but the shirt off his back. They said the farm and all the machienery and sales contracts were worth millons.
Here's the joke he did a runner owing me about $3000 and my mate $6000 in unpayed wagges. So he learnt something from Mugabe.
Here's the joke he did a runner owing me about $3000 and my mate $6000 in unpayed wagges. So he learnt something from Mugabe.
Re: I Have More Money Than Zimbabwe!
What a bastard!!
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”