The International Monetary Fund (IMF) sends a delegation to Zimbabwe this week to check its economic performance after narrowly escaping expulsion from the world lending body last year.
Economists however are sceptical over whether the five-member team will leave with favourable impressions after their six-day visit starting Tuesday.
"They (IMF) will be very concerned with the upsurge of inflation. The other problem will be that the government still maintains 18 products under price controls," economic commentator Eric Bloch said.
The IMF has threatened to expel Zimbabwe from its ranks for failing to pay back loans since 2001 and has given the southern African country until February to settle its accounts.
Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa in December predicted economic growth of between two and three percent for this year, forecasting that agricultural production would now grow by 14.8 percent.
"They (government) had based their projections on inflation declining but inflation is continuously going up," said independent economist John Robertson.
"Prospects of a bumper harvest are bleak, all these things are not on track and the IMF will challenge these things," he added.
The visit comes as Zimbabwe made a new payment of 2.5 million dollars (two million euros) to the IMF last week.
In October last year central bank governor Gideon Gono promised that the remainder of Zimbabwe's debt -- about 144.3 million dollars -- would be paid in two instalments in February and November this year.
On the brink of expulsion last year, Zimbabwe made a surprise payment of 120 million dollars -- more than a third of its outstanding debt -- to the IMF in September, winning itself a six-month reprieve.
Without the payment, Zimbabwe risked becoming the second country to be kicked out of the IMF since the former Czechoslovakia in 1954.
But given the country's dire economic straits, the payments prompted speculation and suspicion as to its source, with economists noting that Zimbabwe could not afford to spare hard currency.
The central bank, which has paid back 148 million dollars since February last year, said the money came mainly from "free funds" and export earnings.
The IMF has said it would investigate the source of the loan payback and would report on its findings to the executive board in March.
It has expressed "deep concern over the continued sharp economic and social decline in Zimbabwe, with prospects of continued triple-digit inflation, further output declines, and increased poverty."
Some 80 percent of Zimbabwe's 13-million population lives under the poverty threshold, more than 70 percent are jobless and inflation stands at 585.8 percent.
The IMF team will meet with Murerwa, central bank governor Gideon Gono, business executives, bankers and officials from the labour movement.
The body has requested from Zimbabwe strong fiscal adjustment, full liberalisation of the exchange rate and elimination of all quasi-fiscal activity by the central bank.
When the IMF visited last September, the central bank maintained a managed foreign currency auction, where the local unit traded at 26,000 Zimbabwe dollars against the greenback.
The central bank relaxed the exchange rate in October last year and this week the Zimbabwe dollar was trading at 95,000 per US dollar.
Economist Witness Chinyama said the country still had a long way to go in winning the battle with high inflation and foreign currency shortages.
"After the devaluation of the exchange rate, politicians expect foreign currency to start flowing in and if the results are not immediately visible they complain that they have been fooled," said Chinyama.