HARARE (Reuters) – Zimbabwe’s economy is now expected to grow 1.2 percent in 2016, from the 1.4 percent forecast earlier in the year, Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa said in his mid-year budget speech on Thursday.

Chinamasa also told parliament that the budget deficit had already overshot the target in the first half of the year at $623 million, and that the shortfall for the whole year could rise above $1 billion.

(Reporting by MacDonlad Dzirutwe; Writing by Stella Mapenzauswa; Editing by James Macharia)