Economy wobbles in bittersweet 2013

With all economic indicators painting a gloomy picture, in parallel with international trends, it was not all despair for the economy as milestone events such as the relocation of De Beers’ P50 billion sales business to Gaborone point to healthier prospects.

Announcing the 2013/14 budgets at the beginning of the year, Finance Minister Kenneth Matambo predicted the economy would grow by an optimistic 5.9 percent. But on the back of slower increase in output from both the mineral and non-mining sectors government has since cut down the forecast to 4.4 percent.