Zimbabwe budget can surpass $10 billion

Zimbabwe's national budget can surpass the $10 billion mark if the country fully exploits chrome and gold mineral deposits, Speaker of Parliament Jacob Mudenda has said.

The national budget has been averaging $4 billion for the past three years.

In a post-budget seminar held by the Parliament of Zimbabwe yesterday in Harare, Mudenda said in reaching that goal, there was need to answer how to close the $6 billion budget deficit against the usual $4 billion revenue inflows.

Mudenda said another area, which could help in closing the $6bn gap, was a look at gold mining, but the 2017 National Budget did not provide adequate resources to Fidelity Printers to capacitate small-scale gold producers as had been proposed.