Zimbabwe will
soon run out of money: Baz - DailyNews Live
HARARE - Bankers Association of Zimbabwe (Baz) has warned
that Zimbabwe will soon run out of money to sustain imports.
Joseph Mverecha, Agribank divisional director, speaking
on behalf of Baz president Sam Malaba at the Gweru Agricultural Show business
conference last week, said Zimbabwe's depressed economic performance was
ominous.
"The trade deficit that we are experiencing, sooner
or later, we will run
out of money to finance it," Mverecha said.
He said since 2010, Zimbabwe's import bill had ballooned
from $1,5 billion to about $6 billion in 2014.
"Since dollarisation, our current account has
drastically increased and at
some stage we will fail to pay for those imports,"
Mverecha said. He
predicted that the country would witness a decline in
imports soon.
The influx of imports into the economy has been met by
insignificant
exports which are largely in raw form, hence
noncompetitive on the
international market.
Imports in Zimbabwe increased to $528,18 million in June
of 2014 from
$510 million in May of 2014.
Mverecha said Zimbabwe needed fresh money to shore up the
economy.
"We need fresh capital into the economy," he
said.
Zimbabwe has failed to attract the much-needed foreign
direct investment (FDI) due to a cocktail of government policies hostile to investors,
chief among them the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act, which
requires foreign firms to cede 51 percent to locals.
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