Consultancy firm to hold post-budget meetings

Acting Business Editor
A LOCAL business consulting firm, Integrated Advisory Group, will this month host two post-budget meetings in Bulawayo and Gweru to discuss the implications of the 2014 fiscal policy statement.
Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa last month unveiled a US$4,02 billion budget, which he described as “policy-based”.

“The post-budget meetings that we have scheduled for January 30th at Holiday Inn in Bulawayo and the 31st in Gweru at the Village Lodge are basically meant to analyse the 2014 national budget implications and conceptualise it,” said Integrated Advisory Group managing director, Collen Mugodzva in an interview yesterday.

He added: “Normally, a post-budget meeting is held soon after the presentation of the fiscal policy statement; in our case we could not do so because of the holidays.”

This year’s budget was presented on December 19.
In his presentation, Minister Chinamasa said while it was normal for economies that emerge from hyper-inflation to experience a few years of strong growth as the “low hanging fruits” are harvested (a period of fast growth followed by a slowdown), it was quite evident the country needs to put in place confidence building measures to deal with the present economic challenges.

Such challenges include lack of liquidity to support the productive sectors of the economy, power challenges, low inflation levels that do not relate with economic principles and this may eventually result in deflation. In simpler terms, deflation refers to a decrease in the general prices of goods and services and it occurs when the inflation rate falls below zero percent. The economic challenges facing the country have also been compounded by economic agents who prior to the harmonised election adopted a “wait and see” attitude with the last few months before the July 31 polls witnessing an intensified liquidity squeeze in the economy leading to weak aggregate demand.

This also had the effect of slowing down economic activity, with the 2013 Gross Domestic Product growth revised downwards to 3,4 percent from an initial projection of five percent. Minister Chinamasa said the 2014 national budget will be premised on the country’s new five-year economic blueprint, the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Social-Economic Transformation (Zim Asset).

Zim Asset aims to achieve sustainable development and social equity, propelled by the judicious exploitation of the country’s abundant human and natural resource endowment.