Southern Africa: SADC Salutes TZ On MEC Targets

By Bernard Lugongo

THE Southern African Development Community (SADC) committee of ministers of finance and investment has expressed its satisfaction with the progress made by Tanzania and DR Congo, in

attaining agreed regional Macroeconomic Convergence (MEC) targets.

The ministers, who met to review the implementation of agreed SADC Macroeconomic Convergence targets, were looking at the progress made by the countries towards attaining the targets.

In its communiqué released yesterday, following their meeting on Wednesday, the committee said Tanzania continued implementing the recommendations of the Peer Review Panel from the previous Peer Review and Five Year Development Plan Phase II 2016/17- 2020/21.

"Consequently, the country's economy realised robust economic growth averaging 6.9 per cent over the last three years (2016-2018), which is in line with the SADC macroeconomic convergence target of at least 7 per cent," the ministers stated.

Tanzania's inflation rate averaged 4.4 per cent over the past four years, which is within the SADC target of 3-7 per cent.

The panel stated that Tanzania's fiscal deficit as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) widened over the review period from 1.4 per cent of GDP in 2016 to 2.5 per cent of GDP in 2018 but improved to 2.3 per cent of GDP in 2019, which is within the regional target of 3.0 per cent.

Public debt remained within the SADC threshold of 60 per cent of GDP, averaging 40.1 per cent between June 2016 and June 2019.

The panel considered and approved the Mission Review Reports and recommended policy proposals for the DR Congo and Tanzania.

The panel agreed that Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe be the next member states to be peer reviewed during 2020/2021.

Speaking about the DR Congo's economy, the panel said the country has been strengthening over the past few years, leading to improved performance against primary and secondary MEC targets.

The country's GDP growth improved from 2.4 per cent in 2016, to 3.7 per cent in 2017 and 5.8 per cent in 2018 but slowed down to 4.6 per cent in 2019 largely due to a decline in mining production amid weak commodity prices.

Inflation slowed down sharply to 7.2 per cent in 2018 and 4.6 per cent in 2019 and is projected at 5.0 per cent in 2020.

At the same time, the 'cash base' management system has enabled the DRC to record a budget surplus of 0.2 per cent of GDP during the period of 2016 and 2018, and the marginal deficit of 0.2 per cent of GDP in 2019.

At the end of last year, DRC's public debt stood at 13.3 per cent of GDP, well below the SADC thresh-hold of 60 per cent.