When the Honourable Finance Minister, Mthuli Ncube presented his 2020 budget paper and eventually the actual budget, we were not impressed. Mainly because his positive outlook for 2020 rested on one thing and one thing alone. That we would have normal rains.

Essentially his whole strategy was “let’s wait for the rains“. Well, we are in January now and the rains are yet to really come. The country is starring at another drought and from perusing the budget the government apart from making guttural noises backed by little funds doesn’t seem to have planned for this contingency.

According to Economists from the leading publication the Economists.com, Zimbabwe’s economy is set to shrink by a whopping 13% in 2020 mostly as a result of climate change. Despite all the forekowledge the government had there seems to be no sense of urgency to address the challenges.

Zimbabwe will be among its worst performers in 2020. The southern African state will be second last and Venezuela, whose economy is expected to contract by 20, 5%, at the bottom.