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Oliver Kazunga, Senior Business Reporter
THE country’s import bill dropped by 11.2 percent between June and September to $439.6 million, trade figures from the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency show.

According to latest figures released by Zimstat, the import bill during the period under review has been on a downward trend from $495.1 million in June.

In July, the import bill went down to $482 million before going down further to $448 million in August.

Since last year, the country’s import bill has been dropping largely driven by tight policy interventions the Government adopted to control imports.

Despite the drop in the import bill, the country was still affected by a negative trade deficit as exports amounted to $326.5 million in August.

In January, the value of exports was $292 million.

Zimbabwe largely exports goods such as minerals and agricultural produce to countries such as Singapore, China, Zambia, South Africa, Belgium, Mozambique and the United Arab Emirates.

Last year, the Government introduced Statutory Instrument 64 of 2016, which removed several goods from the Open General Import Licence. Products listed under SI 64/2016 included dairy products, bottled water, margarine, coffee creamers, cooking oil, chocolates, iron and steel as well as hardware products such as cement and bricks, among others. The objective of the import restriction was to lower the country’s import bill as goods listed can only be imported based on their availability on the local market. Government has since consolidated all import control regulations under the new S.I. 122 of 2017.

Since adoption of a multi-currency system in February 2009, Zimbabwe has experienced an influx of imported products from countries such as South Africa, Japan, China, and Brazil resulting in a negative trade balance.

Economic experts have urged Government to ensure it continues implementing policies that encourage companies to export in order to address the negative trade deficit. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe introduced a five percent export incentive scheme to benefit exporters in different sectors of the economy. The export incentive has since been raised to 12 percent for some selected companies.

@okazunga