Zimbabwe needs 45 billion dollars to return its economy to peak levels seen more than a decade ago, Finance Minister Tendai Biti said Wednesday. But he warned that doubts over the future of the strained unity government were hampering the still fragile economic recovery. "About 45 billion dollars is required to get the country back to its peak level of 1996-97," Biti told reporters at the launch of a three-year economic blueprint.
Zimbabwe's economy has contracted every year since 1997, but is expected to grow 4.7 percent this year, after the local currency was abandoned in January and the unity government took office the following month. President Robert Mugabe, who has ruled since independence in 1980, was forced into the power-sharing arrangement with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai following disputed elections last year. The deal, known as the Global Political Agreement (GPA), remains shaky due to a raft of disputes over key jobs and claims that Tsvangirai's supporters remain the target of official persecution.