Harare - Zimbabwe's economy will expand in 2013 by 8.9 per cent, the country's finance minister said in a pre-budget statement on Friday, but conditioned the growth on a stable political and economic environment and ministries spending within their alloted budgets.
Finance Minister Tendai Biti, who will present the formal budget on November 15, had previously expected the southern African nation to grow by just 5.6 per cent.
The country's economy, which collapsed last decade amid rampant hyperinflation and a collapse of the agricultural sector, has been making a slow recovery since the formation of a coalition government in 2009, which brought together the former opposition Movement for Democratic Change and President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party.
The country is due to hold general elections next year. The last elections in 2008 were fraught with violence, which primarily targeted the MDC and other opposition groups. - Sapa-dpa
IOLSA