Zimbabwe: Growth target raised to 8.1%

September 27, 2010 | Reuters

Zimbabwe's economy would grow by 8.1 percent this year, up from a projected 5.4 percent, Finance Minister Tendai Biti said on Friday, due to a revival in the agriculture sector, particularly tobacco.

Farm production plunged by 60 percent after President Robert Mugabe's seizures of white-owned commercial farms in 2000.

The economy started expanding, for the first time in a decade, by 5.7 percent in 2009.

Analysts attribute the recovery to more donor support for small farms and the use of the US dollar and South African rand in the economy, which made farming profitable.