Zimbabwe cuts economic growth forecast to 3.1%

Zimbabwe has cut its growth forecast for 2014 to 3.1 percent, down from the initial 6.1 percent due to depressed economic activity.
Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa made the revision in a July 1, 2014 letter of intent and a Memorandum of Economic and Technical Understanding to the IMF.
He said given the downward revision to the economic outlook, there were now significant risks to the revenue side of the 4.2 billion budget.
"In addition, our financing space is quite constrained, as we are facing large maturities on domestic treasury bills and loans in 2014," he said.
The IMF and the World Bank had already revised downwards the country's economic growth rate to 4 percent and 2 percent respectively citing poor mining performance and low foreign direct investment into the country.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe had also cut the growth rate to 3. 1 percent.
Chinamasa had already told parliament this week that the country was likely to miss the 6.1 percent growth target due to weak performance in the mining sector as a result of low international prices.