Giving a state of the economy update on Friday in Harare, Biti said $247 million had been collected in November alone but, year on year, the figure currently stands at $3,5 billion.
“In December we are expecting revenues of about US$400 million,” he said.
Zimbabwe’s total revenues for the third quarter amounted to $902,3 million compared to $771,1 million in the first quarter and $825.9 million in the second quarter.
Biti said the he was expecting inflation to end the year at about three percent and added that the country’s imports were consuming so much money.
He said the country needed to produce more to import less. During the period under review, total imports amounted to $2 billion compared to $1,7 billion recorded in the corresponding period in 2011.
This translates to a 17,6 percent increase in imports.
“The surge in imports is largely attributed to the country’s continued dependence on imported goods and services. The local production has remained subdued and as a result, still falls short of meeting local demand,” he said.
Bis said most of the imported goods were raw materials, equipment and food stuffs which are not locally produced.
In the third quarter, total exports were valued at $1 billion compared to $754 million declared in the second quarter. This represents a 32,6 percent increase in exports shipments.
“This increase has been largely attributed to the surge in tobacco exports in the third quarter,” he said.
On a sectoral basis, declared mineral export shipments accounted for (67 percent), followed by tobacco (16 percent), agriculture (9 percent), manufacturing (7,4 percent), horticulture (0,3 percent) and hunting (0,2 percent).
“Although there was an overall slowdown in economic growth in the third quarter, output improvements were noted in some sectors, particularly mining,” he said.
Inflation was also on the decline during the third quarter reaching 3,2 percent by September 2012 compared to the level of four percent attained in June 2012.
Both exports and imports increased by 32,6 percent and 17,6 percent to $1billion and $2 billion, respectively during the third quarter.
Biti said a total of $10 million was availed by the government in September 2012 to the GMB to settle outstanding payments for grain deliveries by farmers. Of this amount, $4,4 million was for grain delivered for the 2011/12 marketing season and $5,6 million for some of the 2012/13 deliveries.
A further $8 million was also disbursed during the same period to ensure settlement of all due payments to farmers as of 31 August 2012.
This development is expected to capacitate farmers to finance production activities during the 2012/13 production season.
“Price stability persevered in the third quarter of the year, with annual inflation decelerating from 3,9 percent in July to 3,6 percent and further down to 3,2 percent in August and September, respectively,” he said.
The slowdown in inflation was on account of weak demand, tight liquidity and weakening of the South African rand against the United States dollar. The current monthly price surge was driven by increases in prices of vegetables, fruits, meat and fuel.
As a result, food inflation increased sharply from -0.11 percent in August to 1,1 percent in September, whilst non-food inflation rose to 0,19 percent from – 0,21 percent over the same period.
However, fluctuations were recorded in month on month inflation, which slowed down from 0,2 percent in July to a negative of 0,2 percent in August before rising to 0,46 percent in September
He said the diamond revenue head continued to perform below expectations with only $90 000 having been collected during the third quarter of 2012 compared to $11,2 million collected in the second quarter.
“Collections in the third quarter were for the month of July only. This, therefore, brings cumulative diamond revenue collections to $41,7 million, since January 2012 against a revised target of 28,9 million”
“Expenditure developments were guided by the amount of revenues collected, in line with the cash budgeting framework. Reflecting this, expenditures for the quarter under review were restricted to $887,5 million, against planned expenditures of US$976,9 million,” Biti said.
Expenditures increased by 18,3 percent in the second quarter from $721,2 million in the first quarter to US$853,3 million and further increased by 4 percent to $887,5 million in the third quarter.
The resultant cumulative expenditures for the period January to September 2012 were $2,5 billion against a target of $2,8 billion, resulting in the overall under-performance of expenditures of $356,7 million.
Total banking sector deposits stood at $3,7 billion as at the end of August 2012 compared to $2,95 billion in 31 August 2011. This represents an annual growth rate in banking sector deposits of 21,7 percent.
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