Zimbabwe's Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa has revised downwards the country’s economic growth forecast to 1.4% from the initial projection of 2, 7%.
The new projection brings the target in line with the projections of the two Bretton Woods institutions, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
A statement released on Monday by the ministry of finance read in part, "Despite the headwinds facing the economy, growth in 2016 is projected to remain positive at 1.4 percent. This is notwithstanding the budget projection of 2.7 percent."
Deflation
The downward projection also comes after the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency or Zimstats Monday said the country’s consumer prices declined 1.64% year-on-year in April, after contracting 2.31% in March.
On a month-on-month basis, prices fell 0.21% compared with a 0.12% dip in the previous month, Zimstats said.
Chief Economist Prosper Chitambara of the Labor and Economic Development Research Institute told Voice of America that economy is on the decline.
Poverty Datum Line
Zimstat says the Total Consumption Poverty Line (TCPL) for an average of five persons per household stood at $482.00 in March 2016. The poverty datum line (PDL) represents the cost of a given standard of living that must be attained if a person is deemed not to be poor.
The food poverty datum line (FPL) represents the minimum consumption expenditure necessary to ensure that each household member can (if all expenditures were devoted to food) consume a minimum food basket representing 2,100 calories.
