Harare — The overdue and almost complete liberalisation of the economy announced last week by Acting Minister of Finance Senator Patrick Chinamasa and filled out and completed this week by the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Dr Gideon Gono, puts Zimbabwe on the right path for economic growth.

But the next few months are going to be very tough.

The worst that can be said about them is that they will not be as bad as things would have been if we had carried on the way we were.

And the best is that we will be starting a slow climb from our slump. Indeed, Zimbabwe is one of the few countries in the world this year likely to register significant positive growth.

The economic U-turn will be the major reason for this, but the political settlement is at least a necessary condition, although not a sufficient condition.

The policy changes must be pushed through, with no backtracking. Both Zanu-PF, with its socialist background and support of the rural poor, and MDC-T, with its trade union background, are going to come under pressure from core constituencies to make a concession here and a concession there.

For a while there are going to be some severe inequalities in society, with the Government's own employees in a particularly invidious position as they wait for tax receipts to start rising and the State having enough to pay them modest but acceptable salaries. But it is necessary for the Government to hold its course and be prepared to swallow its pride when necessary.

Even with the illegal sanctions, which have meant that Zimbabwe has had no access to international lines of credit or balance of payments support, the country has received serious aid from all around the world, including those who wish the country's Government ill, in recent months as it fights the cholera epidemic.

The inclusive Government will be able to do better, having more international goodwill.

But with the world in its worst economic crisis since the 1930s, there is not going to be a lot of help and handouts. Credit is tight and Zimbabwe will have to take its place in some very long queues when it comes to accessing international monetary authorities and banks.

Private credit is almost non-existent and either such credit will be very expensive or banks will feel there are countries with a better credit risk.

In any case, Zimbabwe has to be careful.

The country already owes a lot of money. Figures given by Sen Chinamasa, that the Government plans to raise and spend the equivalent of US$1,9 billion, or around 30 percent of the expected gross national product this year, suggest that our GNP is a little over US$6 billion.

And we owe a trifle over three-quarters of that figure, according to the figures from Dr Gono, in external debts, public and private.

So we need to be careful and prudent.

Internal debts have largely been wiped out by inflation. Hardly a single private person owes money and corporate and national debt in Zimbabwe dollars is hardly a crippling burden.

Both Sen Chinamasa and Dr Gono showed eagerness to tap pension funds once again, but this time with securities denominated in hard currencies. This might be fine, so long as the temptation is resisted to use borrowed money for running costs or paying salaries.

Borrowed money must be allocated, and only allocated, to capital budgets and even then it would be best if it was allocated to infrastructural repair and expansion and other areas where its use is likely to see economic growth, and thus a rise in tax income and thus giving us the ability to pay the interest.

While it looks as though the Government and RBZ have made some serious shifts in their thinking, at least to the extent of realising that funding the State and core services with a printing press is no longer an option, the rest of the Zimbabwe needs to make changes. The new liberal environment, where almost anything is legal so long as taxes and fees are paid and the authorities are given information about what is going on in the economy, will be especially tough on the inefficient and those who got into some very bad habits.

The changes of the last five days have seen the almost total collapse of the "dealer economy". The only way to get rich in Zimbabwe now is to make something or sell something that people want and do that better or cheaper than anyone else.

That is the way it should be. But it also means that people are going to have to work very hard, and for some months very hard with only modest rewards as we rebuild our economy.

But we need to remember that it does not take that long to rebuild an economy, especially if there is a common purpose and willingness to share sacrifices. Japan and Germany were bombed and shelled into rubble almost 65 years ago. Within a remarkably short time, putting their skills to work, they rebuilt their economies better and became the second and third largest economies in the world.

We, too, can rebuild, and do it better than we did before, and then start moving ahead again. But we are going to need a common purpose, a common sense of sacrifice and a willingness to make tough choices and stick with them.