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 - $26.07 billion (2002 est.)
GDP - real growth rate:
-13% (2002 est.)
GDP - per capita:
purchasing power parity - $2,100 (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:
China 6%, South Africa 5.7%, Germany 5.4%, UK 4.8%, Japan 4.7%,
Netherlands 4.4%, US 4.1% (2002)
Imports:
$1.739 billion f.o.b. (2001 est.)
Imports - commodities:
machinery and transport equipment, other manufactures, chemicals,
fuels
Imports - partners:
South Africa 47.7%, Congo, Democratic Republic of the 5.7%,
Mozambique 5.3% (2002)
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), 55.05 (2001), 44.42
(2000), 38.3 (1999), 23.68 (1998)
Fiscal year:
1 January - 31 December