By Claver Nyuki

Zimbabwe’s economy is set to grow by 2.7% from a dip of -7.5% recorded the previous year, states the Global Economic Prospects report released by the World Bank this January.

Commenting on the Global Prospects report, economist, Clemence Machadu Jr, posted on his Twitter handle, “Zimbabwe’s economy will this year grow by 2.7% from a dip of - 7.5% last year, according to IMF’s Global Economic Prospects report. This is lower than the 3.5% initially projected by the Fund in June 2019. The forecast is also lower than the 3% projected by treasury.”

Responding to Machadu’s tweet, Musaseke Nzenza commented treasury on not being too far from World Bank projections. She tweeted, “Treasury was not far off the mark after all. The obtaining stability is indicative that a rebound is the only foreseeable result.”

The report also projects growth in the region and identifies investor confidence, easing of bottlenecks and improvement in agriculture as key to the projected growth.

“Growth in the region is expected to firm to 2.9 percent in 2020, and accelerate further to an average of 3.2 percent in 2021-22.

“The pickup assumes that investor confidence improves in some large economies, that energy bottlenecks ease, that a pickup in oil production contributes to a cyclical recovery among industrial commodity exporters, and that robust growth continues among exporters of agricultural commodities,” states the World Bank.

The projections by the World Bank solidifies Government economic policies aimed at improving the country while strengthening the attainment of President Mnangagwa’s 2030 middle income status vision.