Zimbabwe 'would be shut down if it was a company'-Zimbabwe finance minister

Zimbabwe would be shut down if it were a private company, the finance minister has declared, days after joking that it only had $217 (£138) in the bank account.

Tendai Biti warned executives in Harare on Thursday that Zimbabwe is in a permanent economic crisis.

He told a meeting of the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries that it was "unacceptable that Zimbabwe continued to be trapped in a cycle of permanent depression or permanent crisis punctuated by periods of growth".
Mr Biti added: "It is not sustainable. If Zimbabwe was a private company it would have closed down."

Earlier this week Mr Biti joked with the media that they had more money in their bank accounts than Zimbabwe, which only had $217 (£138) in the treasury on Tuesday although hours later the balance improved by about $30 million.

Zimbabwe is battling to emerge from a decade-long economic crisis after President Robert Mugabe destroyed the agriculture-based economy by evicting about 4,000 white commercial farmers.

Mr Biti slammed commercial banks, most of them foreign owned, for refusing to back treasury bills issued late last year. "They only offered a pathetic amount," he said.
Mr Biti and others in his Movement for Democratic Change party say fears of "indigenisation" stops much potential new investment.

Mr Mugabe's Zanu PF brought in a law that says all foreign companies must sell 51 per cent of shares to black Zimbabweans. So far most large international mining companies have complied with the law, but no locals have been able to afford to buy the majority shares.

The MDC is in an uncomfortable four-year-old inclusive government with Mr Mugabe's Zanu PF party, which ends when Zimbabweans vote in fresh elections later this year.