Economy - overview:
The government of Zimbabwe faces a wide variety of difficult economic problems as it struggles with an unsustainable fiscal deficit, an overvalued exchange rate, soaring inflation, and bare shelves. Its 1998-2002 involvement in the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, for example, drained hundreds of millions of dollars from the economy. Badly needed support from the IMF has been suspended because of the country's failure to meet budgetary goals. Inflation rose from an annual rate of 32% in 1998 to 59% in 1999, to 60% in 2000, to over 100% by yearend 2001, to 228% in early 2003. The government's land reform program, characterized by chaos and violence, has nearly destroyed the commercial farming sector, the traditional source of exports and foreign exchange and the provider of 400,000 jobs.
GDP:
purchasing power parity - $27 billion (2002 est.)
GDP - real growth rate:
-12.1% (2002 est.)
GDP - per capita:
purchasing power parity - $2,400 (2002 est.)
GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 18%
industry: 24%
services: 58% (2001)
Population below poverty line:
70% (2002 est.)
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 1.97%
highest 10%: 40.42% (1995)
Distribution of family income - Gini index:
50.1 (1995)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
134.5% (2002 est.)
Labor force:
5.8 million (2000 est.)
Labor force - by occupation:
agriculture 66%, services 24%, industry 10% (1996)
Unemployment rate:
70% (2002 est.)
Budget:
revenues: $2.5 billion
expenditures: $2.6 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA (2000)
Industries:
mining (coal, gold, copper, nickel, tin, clay, numerous metallic and nonmetallic ores), steel, wood products, cement, chemicals, fertilizer, clothing and footwear, foodstuffs, beverages
Industrial production growth rate:
-3.1% (2002 est.)
Electricity - production:
6.735 billion kWh (2001)
Electricity - production by source:
fossil fuel: 47%
hydro: 53%
other: 0% (2001)
nuclear: 0%
Electricity - consumption:
9.813 billion kWh (2001)
Electricity - exports:
0 kWh (2001)
Electricity - imports:
3.55 billion kWh (2001)
Oil - production:
0 bbl/day (2001 est.)
Oil - consumption:
23,000 bbl/day (2001 est.)
Oil - exports:
NA (2001)
Oil - imports:
NA (2001)
Agriculture - products:
corn, cotton, tobacco, wheat, coffee, sugarcane, peanuts; cattle, sheep, goats, pigs
Exports:
$1.57 billion f.o.b. (2001 est.)
Exports - commodities:
tobacco, gold, ferroalloys, textiles/clothing
Exports - partners:
EU 44%, South Africa 15%, Japan 7.3%, US 6% (2001)
Imports:
$1.739 billion f.o.b. (2001 est.)
Imports - commodities:
machinery and transport equipment, other manufactures, chemicals, fuels
Imports - partners:
South Africa 43.7%, EU 11%, US 2% (2001 est.)
Debt - external:
$3.9 billion (2002 est.)
Economic aid - recipient:
$178 million (2000 est.)
Currency:
Zimbabwean dollar (ZWD)
Currency code:
ZWD
Exchange rates:
Zimbabwean dollars per US dollar - 55 (2002), 55.0521 (2001), 44.4179 (2000), 38.3012 (1999), 23.6791 (1998)
Fiscal year:
1 January - 31 December
NOTE: The information regarding Zimbabwe on this page is re-published from the 2003 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Guinea Geography 2003 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Zimbabwe Economy 2003 should be addressed to the CIA.
