And in better times, long ago:
Posted on 01/29/2013 3:33:05 PM PST by dynachrome
HARARE (AFP) After paying public workers’ salaries last week, the balance in cash-strapped Zimbabwe’s government public account stood at just $217, Finance Minister Tendai Biti said Tuesday.
“Last week when we paid civil servants there was $217 (left) in government coffers,” Biti told journalists in the capital Harare, claiming some of them had healthier bank balances than the state.
“The government finances are in paralysis state at the present moment. We are failing to meet our targets.”
Zimbabwe’s economy went into free-fall at the turn of the millennium, after President Robert Mugabe began seizing white-owned farms.
The move demolished investor confidence in the country, paralysed production, prompted international sanctions and scared off tourists.
After more than a decade — in which the country suffered hyper-inflation of 231 million percent and infrastructure that crumbled as quickly as prices went up — the situation is now more stable.
But public finances remain a mess and local business battles against unstable electricity supplies, lack of liquidity and high labour costs.
Zimbabwe’s government has warned it does not have enough money to fund a constitutional referendum and elections expected this year.
(Excerpt) Read more at en.starafrica.com ...
Zim ping
Bring back the Brits.
Could be worse —they could instead be $115 TRILLION in the hole, after you could unfunded liabilities.
(that’s a pile of $100-bills twice as high was the WTC, btw...)
But actually, that is more than we have.
Sorry. Just do not care.
At least they’re in the black financially!
That’s $16,500,000,000,217 more than we got.
Maybe they could just put in one of those $1 Quadzillion Zimbabwe bills in the bank to cover it?
And in better times, long ago:
Sounds like Zimbabwe is longing for the days when it was Rhodesia
Good thing they didn’t try Quantitative Easing. The $217 would be in the red, and with about seven decimal places on the end.
leave it to a foreign born, foreign educated, foreign mentored, anti american indonesian muslim steeped in marxism beliefs......
let the culture go the course and yes, we will have a kenya....er zimbabwe on our plate.
“Does anybody have a phone number for that Geithner fellow? I hear he’s available.”
My daughter, who just graduated from college and started working on contract for a PR and advertising firm as an Accounts Analyst is RICHER than the entire country of Zimbabwe... who would thunk!!
$217??? Woo Hoo!! Road Trip!
our new treasury sec has it covered.
$217 in the bank??
even Zimbabwe’s financial situation is better then ours
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