(Reuters) Zimbabwe's finance minister painted an optimistic
outlook for his country on Tuesday, despite protests over fuel prices that
human rights groups say have left at least a dozen people dead.
Mthuli Ncube told Reuters that in the next year he hoped to
bring inflation under 10 percent from 42 percent now, find the money to cover
debt payments of $1.2 billion, and introduce a new currency.
He also talked up a privatisation programme that has so far
seen little real progress. Zimbabwe is the best buy in Africa right now, he said in an
interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Zimbabwe is facing its most serious economic crisis in a
decade. Shortages of food, fuel and foreign currency are testing the government
of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who was voted into power after the overthrow
of Robert Mugabe in 2017.
The government recently raised the price of fuel, which
sparked protests across the country. Human rights groups say Zimbabwean
security forces used live ammunition to quell them.
Ncube, a former banker whose appointment last year was
meant to signal a new focus on the economy, said Mnangagwa had issued a very
clear statement to say that violence is really not allowed, that violence is
un-Zimbabwean on both sides.
He said any abuses by the security forces would be
punished. It is precisely because of the opening up of the democratic
space that this (the protests) has happened, he said.
There is only one centre of power which is the president.
Everyone is behind him.
Mthuli Ncube, finance minister of #Zimbabwe, denies that protests in his country were sparked by a sudden hike in fuel prices. He tells @RichardQuest that the protests were "pre-planned" and that the government's shutdown of the internet was a "temporary and tactical strategy." pic.twitter.com/3wszAEWKOt— Quest Means Business (@questCNN) 22 January 2019
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