With the economy now on a free flow, prices of basic commodities going up and parallel foreign currency markets flying as high as 120% against the local bond notes, Finance and Economic Development Minister Mthuli Ncube is still optimistic that the economy will  grow by 6,3 percent this year.

Prof Ncube said this yesterday in Harare while announcing fiscal measures that includes limiting use of RBZ overdraft facility as well as restructuring the debt owed to key Paris Club creditors.

“The economy is showing signs of recovery albeit with a number of challenges and risks. Indications are that the economy will grow by 6,3 percent against the original Budget projection of 4,5 percent and 4,8 percent estimated for 2017.

“With this projected growth, Zimbabwe will join the ‘6 percent club’ of African countries growing at more than 6 percent per year,” said Prof Ncube:

The economy is expected to grow, underpinned by “better-than-anticipated performance” across the key sectors of the economy chiefly agriculture, mining, tourism and manufacturing during the first half of the year.

In agriculture, tobacco stunned hitherto critics of the land reform programme after shredding initial projections to record a staggering 250 million kg this year, the highest tobacco output ever produced in the country even during the time of white former commercial farmers.

The tobacco output, which raked in $730,7 million this marketing season, compensated for the expected lower maize output due to poor rainfall patterns at the beginning of the rainy season.