HARARE, May 28 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe's economy is expected to slow down in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with a bad agricultural season and lack of international support, take its toll.

Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said the pandemic would hugely affect the economy, state news agency New Ziana reported Thursday.

"In tandem with other global economies, Zimbabwe's economy has been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak and growth is expected to slow down. The drought experienced in the 2018-19 and the current season coupled with diminished access to external sources of foreign currency further compounded Zimbabwe's economic situation," she said in a post-Cabinet media briefing late Wednesday.

She said the government had put a number of measures in place to rescue the economy.

"There are however, a number of measures, both fiscal and monetary, that are being implemented to address the challenges that the country is going through in the absence of financial support from international financial institutions," she said.

Zimbabwe has been under Western sanctions for two decades, penalties that have cost its economy over 100 billion U.S. dollars over the period, the minister said.

Mutsvangwa said the current price hikes and exchange rate fluctuations were more speculative, and did not reflect the economic fundamentals in the country.

The country has lately experienced a wave of price increases, particularly of basic commodities, and sharp devaluation of the local currency.

"It is also stressed that the current price and foreign exchange rate fluctuations are clearly divorced from real economic fundamentals and can also be attributed to speculative tendencies.

"The Minister of Finance and Economic Development and the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe will announce measures which should see the situation stabilizing in due course," she said. Enditem

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