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WE take note of and acknowledge the progress that Government has made in stabilising the economy as it institutes measures to eventually attain its goal of a middle income economy by 2030.

We also applaud the patience of Zimbabweans who have had to bear the pain of economic reforms which have been tough on ordinary people. 

We are, however, under no illusions about the enormity of the task at hand and the long and arduous journey that the country has to navigate before it reaches its Promised Land.

From the beginning, we all knew it would be tough and Zimbabweans would have to take the pain because undoing decades of economic hemorrhaging is no easy stroll in the park.  

Gladly, we have a capable team in place with a visionary captain in the cockpit and the process of fixing the economy is well and truly underway.

The Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Professor Mthuli Ncube, has been very clear about what needs to be done to get the economy back on track. 

His Transitional Stabilisation Programme outlines the stages that Zimbabwe has to go through before it achieves its economic objectives.

The goal of the TSP is clear: To stabilise the economy, attract investment and lay the foundation for shared and sustained growth.

The country is on the right path to that goal and we appeal to Zimbabweans to give Minister Ncube and his team all the support they need to get the economy working again.

As he writes elsewhere on these pages (See Opinion on Page 7), Zimbabwe is on a journey of reform and nobody ever said it wouldn’t be a bumpy ride; but the most important thing is that the journey has begun, and we are heading in the right direction. 

“The overall picture so far is one of cautious optimism, largely based around the effectiveness of our measures to balance the budget. The first step towards progress is to return the fiscal deficit to sustainable levels; both through cutting unnecessary spending and increasing revenue. 

“The target for 2019 is ambitious, but attainable: To reduce the budget deficit from about 12% of GDP to 5%,” writes Prof Ncube.

“Over the past four months, we have made significant cuts to expenditure in five main areas: First, we have ended the unsustainable practice of issuing Treasury Bills to finance the deficit, forcing us to spend within our means and within the budget. Second, we have reduced the public wage bill by cutting salaries of senior government officials by 5% across the board, retiring over 3 000 youth officers, and establishing a more modest bonus system for civil servants that saved over US$75 million in 2018 alone. 

“Third, we have diverted our resources to pressing areas by freezing the hiring of non-critical staff, while hiring 3 000 additional staff in the education sector and almost 2 000 in the health sector. Finally, we have cut unnecessary expenditure and ‘perks’ for ministers and MPs, most notably by suspending the procurement of vehicles”.

These measures have been complemented by a concerted effort to widen the revenue base through the 2% tax on electronic transactions which has had a tremendous impact. For example, US$166 million was raised in the last two months of 2018, and almost US$100 million was raised in January alone.  

Projections are that over US$600 million will be raised during 2019. This is significant progress by any standards and we tip our hats off to Prof Ncube, his team and monetary authorities at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe for working                                                            in unison towards transforming the economy. 

Certainly, there have been hurdles along the way but the progress around economic reforms has been remarkable.

Inflationary pressures have caused uncertainty and pain but Government is addressing this through narrowing the fiscal deficit and slowing down money supply growth.

Its objective is to slow down inflation to below 10% by the end of the year and we believe this is attainable. 

We also take note of the impact of the new monetary policy which is promoting stability, bringing down prices and building confidence.

The acceleration of the reform of State Owned Enterprises and Parastatals (SOEs) will improve governance, leadership and operational efficiency while the acceleration and deepening of the ease and cost of doing business reforms will improve competitiveness and the investment climate. 

As Prof Ncube notes, there are those who are disappointed by the pace of change, and who expected progress to be faster but unfortunately, this was never going to be the case. 

“Reforming, restructuring and rebuilding our economy was always going to take time, and attempts to prematurely accelerate the process might cause greater upheaval and suffering. A sober, strategic and step-by-step process remains the best way to achieve our goal,” the Minister writes.

 We totally agree.