PRESS STATEMENT

OCCASION: MEFMI /ACBF BOOK LAUNCH
VENUE: MEIKLES HOTEL, HARARE, ZIMBABWE
DATE: FRIDAY 18 MARCH 2016
TIME: 13:30 HOURS

The Macroeconomic and Financial Management Institute of Eastern and Southern Africa (MEFMI) will hold a book launch on Friday 18 March 2016, at the Meikles Hotel in Harare, Zimbabwe.

The Institute will launch a book entitled “ECONOMIC MANAGEMENT IN A HYPERINFLATIONARY ENVIRONMENT: THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF ZIMBABWE 1980 – 2008”.

The launch will be attended by Ambassadors from the MEFMI region resident in Zimbabwe (Angola, Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania and Zambia). Other guests will include MEFMI Executive Committee members comprising Governors of the Centrals Banks of Botswana, Kenya, and Malawi. Some contributors to the book, academics from universities and research institutions in Harare as well as representatives from the diplomatic community are also expected to attend.

The launch is an important occasion where the Institute will show case the results of research that documents the challenges Zimbabwe went through during the hyperinflation period.

The Zimbabwean Hyperinflationary period was particularly challenging for policy makers because at that time no economic model, however sophisticated, could produce any meaningful macroeconomic forecasts. It was a period whose developments, challenges and policy reactions needed to be documented. MEFMI is optimistic that the book will enhance the knowledge on managing economies in hyperinflationary environments or preventing the occurrence of such developments.

The book which was published by the Oxford University Press under very high quality assurance standards was co-authored by Zimbabwe academics and other who had first-hand experience of the hyper-inflation period. The collaborative research which was conducted by MEFMI was financed by the African Capacity Building Foundation.

The issues covered in the book cut across most tenets of the Zimbabwean society, making the book an authoritative collection of knowledge and information on the hyper-inflation period. Comments by reviewers clearly show that this is a path-breaking piece of work that policy makers, researchers and students will find very useful. Policy makers, researchers and academicians will draw evidence gathered in the book to inform their policies, research work and for teaching at tertiary institutions, bequeathing the coming generations, within and outside Zimbabwe with a lot of relevant first-hand information which also covers the productive and social sectors.

The book encapsulates authoritative thematic-cum-sectoral perspectives on economic management under severe shocks that Zimbabwe underwent. It cuts across all sectors of the economy including agriculture, manufacturing, banking and other financial services sectors such as insurance and the pensions industry, tourism, monetary and fiscal policies, education and health, just to mention a few. Analysis of what transpired and coping mechanisms employed by economic agents have been well documented in this publication.

MEFMI is a regionally owned organisation with 14 member countries; Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe). The Secretariat which is headed by the Executive Director, Dr Caleb Fundanga, is based in Harare, Zimbabwe.

For more information on this event please contact;

Ms Gladys Siwela, MEFMI Public Relations Manager
Email: gladys.siwela@mefmi.org

You can also follow us on twitter @mefmiorg #booklaunch