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Economic analysts have commended Government for setting the tone for economic recovery through the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation and continued use of the multi-currency regime.
However, gains recorded in the first year of the ZANU-PF led Government are outweighed by challenges still countenancing the economy.
The country is still marooned in a liquidity crisis and fixing it to its old glory would take long, more so for an economy that lost more than half its value to hyperinflation.

The totality of the challenges the economy faces was compounded by sanctions imposed on the country by Western countries opposed to Zimbabwe’s fast-track land reform meant to resettle the landless black majority.

Admittedly, everyone preferred things to have been far better, but economists concur that while missed targets outweigh achievements, the bedrock for a successful turnaround of the economy is firmly in place.

Harare economist Mr Witness Chinyama said Government should be applauded for its wisdom to stick to the multi-currency regime, which has ensured price stability and predictability for economic agents to be able to plan.

“Government has not been swayed into returning the Zimbabwe dollar.
“There was some fear that once ZANU-PF won the election, it would go back to the Zimdollar. The multi-currency has maintained price stability,” he said.

Mr Chinyama however, noted that the myriad of challenges facing the economy was always militated against whatever policy Government had in mind.
“Although there is serious shortage of the US dollar, which dominates the basket of currencies Zimbabwe uses, it is a better devil than the Zimbabwe dollar since the local unit would be prone to shocks,” Mr Chinyama said.

The Harare economist said maintaining the multi-currency was one of Government’s biggest policy achievements since winning the July 31 elections. He also commended the Government for, although briefly, being ruthless in seeking to stamp out corruption especially within State enterprises and parastatals saying this was key to enhancing their efficiencies.

“Although the blitz was short-lived and the zeal has seemingly faltered, this was good because corruption promotes inefficiencies especially given the meagre resources at Government’s disposal,” Mr Chinyama said.

Mr Chinyama also noted that Government has been able to tame the negative hype around indigenisation, which made the policy appear scary to investors.
However, he said that the Government had not been able to re-engage the external sector, which was critical to unlocking external lines of credit. The liquidity crisis has spawned deflation, which has seen firms downsizing and at worst closing shop as demand for goods has kept declining.

Bulawayo-based economist Dr Eric Bloch said over the past year, the economy witnessed a slight upturn in economic growth after 17 years of shrinkage.
“We should give Government some praise considering a slight economic growth that has been seen for the past 19 months. However, the country’s unemployment rate is rising as more companies continues to retrench and this is negative,” Dr Bloch said.

Economic analyst Mr Joseph Sagwati said that Government should move away from rhetoric to action in order for its policies to be successful.
“From a policy perspective while we are good in structuring the requisite frame working on assuaging the economic decline, we lack a synchronised nexus that buttress and turn words into action. This is because we still have long and winding stops to approve and support prospective investments.

“To an extent the Government has managed to create the requisite atmosphere for businesses to thrive especially by continuing with the multi-currency regime.
“Government managed to streamline mining legislation and harmonisation especially as regards the participation of small-scale artisanal miners.

“The use it or lose it arrangement has spurred some production in a lot of claims that were being held for speculative rent seeking machinations,” he said.
The economy continues to stagger under the weight of challenges presented by lack of funding, poor infrastructure, shortage of power, competition from low priced imports, high cost of finance among other factors. This has resulted in many companies retrenching thousands of workers to rationalise costs to avoid total collapse.

The positive, however, has been the fact that most retrenched workers have found comfort in the informal sector, which has become potential exciting growth nod for the economy.