HARARE, Nov 25, Reuters - Zimbabwe is targeting small budget deficits and a sharp drop in inflation in the coming years, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said on Thursday.
In a budget speech to Parliament, Ncube said that the goal was to have a deficit of 1.5% of gross domestic product GDP in 2022 and 1.7% of GDP in 2023, compared to a shortfall of 0.5% of GDP this year.
A presentation shows that the average annual inflation is expected to fall from 94.6% in 2021 to 32.6% next year.
Since he was out of office in November 2017, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa has struggled to revive his former mentor Robert Mugabe.
While his administration has reversed some of Mugabe's disastrous economic policies, millions are still trapped in poverty and dislocations, including an unofficial currency market.
Mnangagwa has so far failed to achieve a breakthrough in efforts to improve relations with Western governments, which continue to accuse his government of human rights abuses and heavy-handed treatment of the opposition.