However, he said that the following day some $30m of revenue had been paid in.

 

Mr Biti told the BBC he made the revelation in order to emphasise¹ that the government was unable to finance elections, not that it was insolvent²（无力偿还的）.

 

Polls are due this year, with President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF fighting Mr Biti's Movement for Democratic Change.

 

Mr Biti has previously³ complained that diamond mining companies have not been paying revenues to the government. 

 

The power-sharing government set up in 2009 ended years of hyperinflation（恶性通货膨胀） by using the US dollar, but the economy remains⁴ fragile.

 

 

Mr Biti told the BBC's Focus on Africa radio programme that his statement had been deliberately⁵ taken out of context.

 

"You journalists are mischievous⁶（恶作剧的） and malicious⁷ - the point I was making was that the Zimbabwean government doesn't have the funds to finance the election, to finance the referendum," he said.

 

"To dramatise the point, I simply made a passing reference metaphorically⁸ that when we paid civil servants last week on Thursday we were left with $217... but even the following day we had $30m in our account."

 

Zimbabwe needs nearly $200m to pay for a referendum on a new constitution, as well as the election. 

 

The government-run Herald⁹ newspaper says Mr Biti and Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa have been given the task of sourcing this money from donors¹⁰. 

 

Analysts¹¹ say the power-sharing government has achieved some economic stability.

 

However, high levels of unemployment mean the country's tax and revenue base remains extremely low. 

 

"We're in a challenging position, we're a small economy and we've got huge things to be done but… the minister for finance of Greece has an even worse story," Mr Biti told the BBC.

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