| 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 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. Badly needed support from the IMF has been suspended because of the government's arrears on past loans, which it began repaying in 2005. The official annual inflation rate rose from 32% in 1998, to 133% in 2004, 585% in 2005, and approached 1000% in 2006, although private sector estimates put the figure much higher. Meanwhile, the official exchange rate fell from approximately 1 (revalued) Zimbabwean dollar per US dollar in 2003 to 160 per US dollar in 2006. |
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| GDP | 3.8% (2006) |
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| GDP - real growth rate | -4.4% (2006 est.) |
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| GDP - composition by sector | agriculture: 17.7%
industry: 22.9%
services: 59.4% (2006 est.) |
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| Population below poverty line | 80% (2004 est.) |
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Household income or consumption
by percentage share | lowest 10%: 2%
highest 10%: 40.4% (1995) |
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Distribution of family income
- Gini index | 56.8 (2003) |
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| Labor force | 3.958 million (2006 est.) |
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| Labor force - by occupation | agriculture: 66%
industry: 10%
services: 24% (1996) |
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| Unemployment rate | 80% (2005 est.) |
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| Budget | revenues: $1.411 billion
expenditures: $1.924 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA (2006 est.) |
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| 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 |
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| Industrial production growth rate | -1.8% (2006 est.) |
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Electricity -
production | 9.412 billion kWh (2004) |
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Electricity -
production by source | fossil fuel: 47%
hydro: 53%
nuclear: 0%
other: 0% (2001) |
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Electricity -
consumption | 11 billion kWh (2004) |
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Electricity -
exports | 0 kWh (2004) |
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Electricity -
imports | 2.25 billion kWh (2004) |
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| Oil - production | 0 bbl/day (2004 est.) |
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| Oil - consumption | 22,500 bbl/day (2004 est.) |
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| Oil - exports | 0 bbl/day (2004 est.) |
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| Oil - imports | 23,000 bbl/day (2004 est.) |
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| Agriculture - products | corn, cotton, tobacco, wheat, coffee, sugarcane, peanuts; sheep, goats, pigs |
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| Exports | $1.766 billion f.o.b. (2006 est.) |
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| Exports - commodities | cotton, tobacco, gold, ferroalloys, textiles/clothing |
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| Exports - partners | South Africa 26.9%, China 7.9%, Japan 6.7%, Zambia 5.5%, Netherlands 5.4%, US 4.9%, Italy 4.5%, Germany 4.4% (2005) |
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| Imports | $2.055 billion f.o.b. (2006 est.) |
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| Imports - commodities | machinery and transport equipment, other manufactures, chemicals, fuels |
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| Imports - partners | South Africa 52.5%, China 5.7%, Botswana 4.1% (2005) |
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| Debt - external | $5.26 billion (2006 est.) |
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| Economic aid - recipient | $178 million; note - the EU and the US provide food aid on humanitarian grounds (2000 est.) |
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| Currency code | ZWD |
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| Exchange rates | Zimbabwean dollars per US dollar - 162.07 (2006), 77.965 (2005), 5.729 (2004), 0.824 (2003), 0.055 (2002)
note: these are official exchange rates; non-official rates vary significantly |
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| Fiscal year | calendar year |
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