Banker says economy set to recover

Zimbabwe’s battered economy could begin to recover within months given the right policies and a management style that inspires international confidence, a leading local banker said on Wednesday.

In an interview with Reuters, Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe (CBZ) managing director Gideon Gono said President Robert Mugabe’s new cabinet had taken the right path last week by tightening fiscal discipline and easing monetary policy to make cheaper finance available to struggling businesses.

“The infrastructure is solid and I am sure that with the right policies, the right attitude on the part of all the key stakeholders, and if we manage our affairs in a manner that can win us back international confidence, we should be able to get the economy going where we want it to go,” he said.

The government devalued the Zimbabwe dollar - which had been pegged at 38 to the U.S. dollar for more than a year - by 24 percent in response to arguments that its refusal to bring the rate to a realistic level had seriously prejudiced the key tobacco and gold export industries.