Mthuli Ncube Has Done More Damage To The Economy Than Chinamasa - Biti

MDC Alliance deputy national chairman and former minister of Finance Tendai Biti has accused current Minister of Finance Mthuli Ncube of destroying the economy by failing to grasp basic economics. Biti said that Mthuli Ncube’s decision to rebase the size of Zimbabwe’s economy by claiming that the country’s GDP is actually US$25.8 billion would negatively affect the country as it would be ineligible for debt relief under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) programme. Speaking to NewsDay, Biti said,

….That programme (HIPC) is very good because it allows your debts to be cancelled and forgiven if you behave well if you run the economy well. So you get rewarded, but you have to be a low-income country, you have to be poor.

… (with) no research, no empirical study. Our GDP [gross domestic product] is $13 billion. He doubles it up. Are you a madman? What are you smoking? Suddenly, we are now a middle-income country. Our per capita income is now $1 500 to $1 700. That is why I said Ncube is a disaster. He is a time bomb that is waiting to explode. He has done more damage to this economy than (former finance minister Patrick) Chinamasa.

Biti has been very critical of Mthuli Ncube and has gone as far as calling him a “fraud”.

More: NewsDay