Growth is expected to stagnate in 2012 and remain at 4.3 percent but will pick up in 2013 with a projected growth rate of 5.7 percent. The rate of inflation has trended upwards since early January 2012 reaching 17.3 percent in May 2012 (12.4 percent in April), largely explained by rising import costs, as imports have been priced at a much depreciated rate.
Gross official reserves have declined from slightly over $ million (1.7 months of prospective imports) in June last year to just over $ million (one month of import cover) by end-April 2012.