Story by Kenias Chivuzhe
GOVERNMENT has expressed commitment to ensuring the country attains the targeted growth rate and restrict inflation levels to a maximum of 54 per cent by the end of next year.
The Ministry of Finance and Economic Development’s strategic meeting that is underway in Mutare has seen the ministry’s Deputy Minister Honourable Clemence Chiduwa expressing confidence that both economic growth and inflation targets for next year will be met, owing to policy consistency.
“Our focus is that by the end of the year the national economic growth will be 4 percent and the project figure for 2023 is 3.8 per cent. With regards to our tools, that is our fiscal and monetary policies, we will maintain the course meaning that we will continue to run tight monetary and fiscal policy regimes. We are saying we need a positive inflation interest rate regime. According to the macroeconomic framework that we have done, we are looking at the inflation rate of 50 to 54 per cent by end of 2023,” he said.
The government says the value-for-money concept will continue to be embedded in the government procurement process to ensure the effective deployment of national resources.
“We are also looking at fiscal discipline and this is where we are looking at our expenditures and broadening our revenue side. At the same time, we will ensure that government departments and ministries adhere to the budget that they were given. The target that we have set for ourselves for the 2023 national budget is not to exceed 1.5 per cent of our GDP. We will maintain tight monetary and fiscal policies and focus on priorities that we have set for ourselves. We will ensure there is value for money in whatever we do. We have ensured that it has become part of our procurement process and this is going to be self-regulating and self-enforcing,” he added.
The government has tightened money supply growth in a move that has stabilised the local currency against the greenback, hence helping tame inflation that has been on a downward trend since mid this year.
