Zimbabwe targets 7.1-per-cent economic growth by 2015

Jul 7, 2011, 14:57 GMT

Harare - Zimbabwe on Thursday launched a five-year economic blueprint aimed at boosting economic growth to 7.1 per cent a year by 2015 and to add 6 per cent jobs annually.

An estimated 9.2 billion dollars would be needed to finance the Medium-Term Plan meant to fight poverty.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said, 'Zimbabwe's challenge as we move the next five years and beyond, is a recapitalization and reconstruction agenda.'

Tapiwa Mashakada, the economic planning minister, said: 'It cannot be business as usual in this country ... The last 10 years are referred to as a lost decade; we need to discover our lost glory.'

The unemployment rate is estimated to be about 90 per cent, according to government data. Zimbabwe has 7 billion dollars in foreign debt.

The plan will also address issues such as providing potable water to the population, constructing railways, roads, schools and hospitals.

In June, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that Zimbabwe's real gross domestic product growth accelerated from 6 per cent in 2009 to 9 per cent in 2010.

However, growth was likely to decelerate this year to 5.5 per cent, the IMF said, citing 'an inefficient composition of expenditure, rising vulnerabilities in the financial system, and the recent announcement of the fast-track indigenization of the mining sector.'