GWERU – Finance Minister Mthul Ncube says the introduction of the United States dollars in 2009 led to the collapse of the industry as it meant imports grew, outweighing exports.
This, he said, killed the production sector.
Ncube was speaking during a youth programme in Gweru Saturday.
“You cannot develop your own country with other people’s currency. You need your own currency to develop. We were compelled to introduce the US dollar in our system but unfortunately, this saw massive deindustrialisation of the Zimbabwean economy due to the use of a hard and strong currency in a developing and smaller economy like Zimbabwe,” he said.
Ncube claimed government’s decision to reintroduce the Zimbabwean Dollar in 2019 was bearing fruit.
“With the introduction of the Zimbabwean dollar, we started to see some revival of the economy. We have reintroduced the Zimbabwean dollar and that is what we need as Zimbabwe, be it in electronic form or hard currency,” he said.
Ncube said the reintroduction of the Zim Dollar has caused the revival of industries in the country.
“The reintroduction of the Zimbabwean dollar has contributed to the revival of industry. I have never seen so many locally produced goods on our shelves in the last forty years. There is currently over 70% of our local products on the shelves. This is a testament to import substitution and job creation,” he said.
He said the economy is expected to grow by at least 5% this year, spurred by key economic activities such as mining, manufacturing and agriculture.
