Zimbabwe's minister for industry and commerce, Mike Bimha, is far from celebrating the latest growth figures recorded by the country's manufacturing sector. There is, says Bimha, "still a lot more work to be done". This suggests that Zimbabwe may go all out in its efforts to turn around a sector that has been hard hit by an influx of cheap imports, the high cost of borrowing and ageing equipment. Growth in the sector has largely been fuelled by an imports restriction enforced by Harare since July . In its annual manufacturing sector survey released on Wednesday, the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries - the largest industry body in the country - says factory capacity utilisation has grown from 34.3% last year to 47.4%. Capacity utilisation was 57.2% in 2011, 44.2% in 2012, 39.6% in 2013 and 36.3% in 2014. Harare has yet to indicate if it will extend the imports restriction, which was meant to last for six months, or increase the range of goods from the current 43 products to encour...
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