Zimbabwe

Economy - overview:
The government of Zimbabwe faces a wide variety of difficult economic problems as it struggles with an unsustainable fiscal deficit, an overvalued official exchange rate, hyperinflation, and bare store shelves. Its 1998-2002 involvement in the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo drained hundreds of millions of dollars from the economy. The government’s land reform program, characterized by chaos and violence, has badly damaged the commercial farming sector, the traditional source of exports and foreign exchange and the provider of 400,000 jobs, turning Zimbabwe into a net importer of food products. The EU and the US provide food aid on humanitarian grounds. Badly needed support from the IMF has been suspended because of the government’s arrears on past loans and the government’s unwillingness to enact reforms that would stabilize the economy. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe routinely prints money to fund the budget deficit, causing the official annual inflation rate to rise from 32% in 1998, to 133% in 2004, 585% in 2005, passed 1000% in 2006, and 26000% in November 2007, and to 11.2 million percent in 2008. Meanwhile, the official exchange rate fell from approximately 1 (revalued) Zimbabwean dollar per US dollar in 2003 to 30,000 per US dollar in September 2007.
GDP (purchasing power parity):
$1.959 billion (2008 est.)
$2.242 billion (2007)
$2.372 billion (2006)
GDP (official exchange rate):
$4.548 billion
note: hyperinflation and the plunging value of the Zimbabwean dollar makes Zimbabwe’s GDP at the official exchange rate a highly inaccurate statistic (2008 est.)
GDP - real growth rate:
-12.6% (2008 est.)
-5.5% (2007 est.)
-4.6% (2006 est.)
GDP - per capita (PPP):
$200 (2008 est.)
$200 (2007 est.)
$200 (2006 est.)
GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 18.1%
industry: 22.6%
services: 59.3% (2008 est.)
Labor force:
4.039 million (2008 est.)
Labor force - by occupation:
agriculture: 66%
industry: 10%
services: 24% (1996)
Unemployment rate:
80% (2005 est.)
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 2%
highest 10%: 40.4% (1995)
Distribution of family income - Gini index:
50.1 (2006)
Investment (gross fixed):
17.5% of GDP (2008 est.)
Budget:
revenues: $153,700
expenditures: $179,300 (2008 est.)
Public debt:
241.2% of GDP (2008 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
11.2 million% (2008 est.)
Central bank discount rate:
975% (31 December 2007)
Commercial bank prime lending rate:
578.96% (31 December 2007)
Stock of money:
$14.18 billion
note: this number reflects the vastly overvalued official exchange rate of 30,000 Zimbabwe dollars per US dollar; at an unofficial rate of 800,000 Zimbabwe dollars per US dollar, the stock of Zimbabwe dollars would equal only about US$500 million and Zimbabwe’s velocity of money (the number of times money turns over in the course of a year) would be nine, in line with the velocity of money for other countries in the region (31 December 2007)
Stock of quasi money:
$5.349 billion (31 December 2007)
Stock of domestic credit:
$24.91 billion (31 December 2007)
Market value of publicly traded shares:
$5.333 billion (31 December 2007)
Agriculture - products:
corn, cotton, tobacco, wheat, coffee, sugarcane, peanuts; sheep, goats, pigs
Industries:
mining (coal, gold, platinum, copper, nickel, tin, clay, numerous metallic and nonmetallic ores), steel; wood products, cement, chemicals, fertilizer, clothing and footwear, foodstuffs, beverages
Industrial production growth rate:
-6% (2008 est.)
Electricity - production:
9.467 billion kWh (2006 est.)
Electricity - consumption:
11.59 billion kWh (2006 est.)
Electricity - exports:
34 million kWh (2006 est.)
Electricity - imports:
2.867 billion kWh (2006 est.)
Oil - production:
0 bbl/day (2007 est.)
Oil - consumption:
14,590 bbl/day (2006 est.)
Oil - exports:
0 bbl/day (2005 est.)
Oil - imports:
15,800 bbl/day (2005 est.)
Oil - proved reserves:
0 bbl (1 January 2006 est.)
Natural gas - production:
0 cu m (2007 est.)
Natural gas - consumption:
0 cu m (2007 est.)
Natural gas - exports:
0 cu m (2007 est.)
Natural gas - imports:
0 cu m (2007 est.)
Natural gas - proved reserves:
0 cu m (1 January 2006 est.)
Current account balance:
-$597 million (2008 est.)
Exports:
$1.806 billion f.o.b. (2008 est.)
Exports - commodities:
platinum, cotton, tobacco, gold, ferroalloys, textiles/clothing
Exports - partners:
South Africa 33.8%, Democratic Republic of the Congo 8.3%, Japan 8.1%, Botswana 7.4%, Netherlands 5.2%, China 5.2%, Italy 4.1%, Zambia 4.1% (2007)
Imports:
$2.337 billion f.o.b. (2008 est.)
Imports - commodities:
machinery and transport equipment, other manufactures, chemicals, fuels
Imports - partners:
South Africa 50.7%, China 8.4%, US 4.5%, Botswana 4.3% (2007)
Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
$100 million (31 December 2008 est.)
Debt - external:
$5.255 billion (31 December 2008 est.)
Stock of direct foreign investment - at home:
$NA
Stock of direct foreign investment - abroad:
$NA
Exchange rates:
Zimbabwean dollars (ZWD) per US dollar - NA (2008 est.), 30,000 (2007), 162.07 (2006), 77.965 (2005), 5.729 (2004)
note: these are official exchange rates; non-official rates vary significantly