Overview: Agriculture employs three-fourths of the labor force and supplies almost 40% of exports. The manufacturing sector, based on agriculture and mining, produces a variety of goods and contributes 35% to GDP. Mining accounts for only 5% of both GDP and employment, but supplies of minerals and metals account for about 40% of exports. Wide fluctuations in agricultural production over the past six years have resulted in an uneven growth rate, one that on average has matched the 3% annual increase in population. Helped by an IMF/World Bank structural adjustment program, output rose 3.5% in 1991. A severe drought in 1991/92 caused the economy to contract by about 10% in 1992.

National product: GDP - purchasing power equivalent - $15.9 billion (1993 est.)

National product real growth rate: 2% (1993 est.)

National product per capita: $1,400 (1993 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 22% (January 1994 est.)

Unemployment rate: at least 35% (1993 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $1.7 billion
expenditures: $2.2 billion, including capital expenditures of $253 million (FY93)

Exports: $1.5 billion (f.o.b., 1992 est.)
commodities: agricultural 35% (tobacco 30%, other 10%), manufactures 25%, gold 12%, ferrochrome 10%, textiles 8% (1992)
partners: UK 14%, Germany 11%, South Africa 10%, Japan 7%, US 5% (1991)

Imports: $1.8 billion (c.i.f., 1992 est.)
commodities: machinery and transportation equipment 41%, other manufactures 23%, chemicals 16%, fuels 12% (1991)
partners: South Africa 25%, UK 15%, Germany 9%, US 6%, Japan 5% (1991)

External debt: $3.5 billion (December 1992 est.)

Industrial production: growth rate 2.3% (1992); accounts for 35% of GDP

Electricity:
capacity: 3,650,000 kW
production: 8.18 billion kWh (1992)
consumption per capita: 740 kWh (1992)

Industries: mining, steel, clothing and footwear, chemicals, foodstuffs, fertilizer, beverage, transportation equipment, wood products

Agriculture: accounts for 20% of GDP and employs 74% of population; 40% of land area divided into 4,500 large commercial farms and 42% in communal lands; crops - corn (food staple), cotton, tobacco, wheat, coffee, sugarcane, peanuts; livestock - cattle, sheep, goats, pigs; self-sufficient in food

Economic aid: NA

Currency: 1 Zimbabwean dollar (Z$) = 100 cents
Exchange rates: Zimbabwean dollars (Z$) per US$1 - 8.1037 (January 1994), 6.4725 (1993), 5.1046 (1992), 3.4282 (1991), 2.4480 (1990), 2.1133 (1989)

Fiscal year: 1 July - 30 June

NOTE: The information regarding Zimbabwe on this page is re-published from the 1995 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Zimbabwe Economy 1995 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Zimbabwe Economy 1995 should be addressed to the CIA.