YAOUNDE (Reuters) - Cameroon has cut its economic growth forecast for 2009 to 3 percent from a previous figure of 4 percent when the budget was prepared late last year, the country's prime minister said late on Wednesday. Prime Minister Ephraim Inoni said the global slowdown had slashed Cameroon's earnings from oil revenues, was threatening large mining projects and risked aggravating poverty and unemployment in the country. "As a consequence, Cameroon's growth rate which was projected this year 2009 at 4 percent when the state budget was being elaborated has been revised to drop to 3 percent," Inoni said on state radio during a joint IMF/World Bank visit to the country. Before the global crisis hit mining projects, Cameroon had targeted over $10 billion in new mining investments and was keen to develop its large hydroelectric potential. Cameroon currently produces around 90,000 barrels of oil per day and the country's 2009 budget had assumed an oil price of around $68 per barrel. The revised growth forecast puts Cameroon's economy largely in line with the rest of Central Africa's six-nation CFA franc zone, which is rich in oil and minerals but has seen its 2009 forecast slashed to 2.8 percent due to the slowdown. | 
