Story by Owen Mandovha, Business Reporter
THE 2024 National Budget consultations are on course with parliamentarians converging at the New Parliament Building in Mt Hampden for a four-day Pre-Budget Seminar.
The seminar saw the Minister of Finance and Investment Promotion, Professor Mthuli Ncube as well as Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor, Dr John Mangudya lay the groundwork for consolidating economic transformation.
“The economy has performed very well over the last course of the year whereby we have managed to achieve fiscal balance though the deficit was within our target of 1,5%. All sectors of the economy have been firing including the agriculture sector and mining sector. The economic trajectory in the sector is set to continue and we expect a growth rate of 3.5% percent of the GDP anchored by the growth in agriculture and mining as well,” said Professor Ncube.
“The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe is expected to maintain a tight monetary policy framework which has allowed the disinflationary pressures to continue. The RBZ will maintain support for the multi-currency regime in line with the government’s directive policy directive,” said Dr Mangudya.
Speaker of the National Assembly, Advocate Jacob Mudenda challenged legislators to create a confluence between the executive and the legislature to effectively contribute towards Vision 2030.
“The legislature should continue to exercise its oversight role and even intensify it to meet our economic growth trajectory and there is a need to create a confluence with the executive to sustain the growth that has been recorded in energy, mining, agriculture and mining sectors,” he said.
Legislators recommended Treasury to harnesses resource mobilisation to consolidate the economic transformation currently underway.
“As Chair of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Local Government, Treasury should allocate enough resources to improve service delivery in line with the roadmap that has been unveiled by His Excellency President Emmerson Mnangagwa today,” said Honourable Supa Mandiwanzira.
“The devolution policy thrust should benefit communities in outlying areas, especially in my community where people need to upgrade their agriculture infrastructure such as dams and irrigation to improve people’s incomes,” said Honourable Marupi.
The 2024 National Budget, anchored on the theme: “Consolidating Economic Transformation” has set a revenue target of 44 trillion Zimbabwe dollars against expenditure of 47 trillion Zimbabwe dollars, translating to a budget deficit of 1.5 percent.
