Economy of Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe is currently one of the poorest economies in the world, which is mainly characterized by a very high unemployment, low GDP, shortage of foreign exchange, investment and energy shortages, as well as a lie fallow many economic sectors.

General

The Zimbabwean economy has evolved from the country's independence in 1980 until the mid- 1990s, one of the strongest economies in Africa. Almost all sectors of the country, but especially tourism, agriculture and mining experienced significant growth. Agriculture alone drove a 1985 production growth of 30 % a, the gross domestic product grew 1980-1981 by 20%. There was also a generally relatively favorable investment climate, the government was not particularly corrupt and the property was not defenseless against kleptocracy. Towards the end of the 90s to now began the high potential of the country is no longer sufficient to exploit. In addition, inflation began to rise, she lay until the end of the 90's still in double figures ( 1980: 7%, 1985: 10% 1990: 17% 1995: 28%, 1999: 56.9%), it rose in 2001 to 112.1 %. This abnormal price increase was due not least to the faulty monetary policy of the central bank, which disproportionately money brought deliberately circulated to raise inflation further. After the inflation in 2002 was 198.93 % and 598.75 % in 2003, it declined in 2004 to 132.75 % in the short term. However, from 2005, the price increase again increased rapidly and broke through in 2006 for the first time a four-digit value ( 1281.11 %). The latest in 2007 occurred hyperinflation, with values of 66212.3 %, led in 2009 to the provisional abolition of the national currency, the Zimbabwe dollar after inflation last reached values of 231,150,888.87 % and the currency virtually no value had become more and staple were not even available.

High inflation also contributed as the imperfect transition from the planned economy to the market economy policy and many other factors, cause of Zimbabwe 's economic performance declined by more than 50 % since the late 1990s. It is further assumed that the unemployment rate is 94%. The gross domestic product in 2008 was 3.19 billion U.S. dollars, which is a decrease to the previous year of 14.8%. Foreign exchange reserves are limited to 0.2 million U.S. dollars ( 2008). The state budget has a deficit of 8.6% of GDP. The national debt is at 6 billion U.S. dollars, representing 189% of GDP.

Agriculture

The country has rich potential, including especially fertile soil, which relegated the country to the name " breadbasket of Africa" before the implementation of land reform. Were grown on 850,000 hectares of maize to further 400,000 hectares of soybeans and tobacco. Other important crops were cotton, peanuts and Yute. With the beginning of the implementation of land reform, which was to be transferred to local farms gradually began " agriculture falling apart " fields are now broke and it is hardly produces anything else. Compounding the already low agricultural production due to drought, which additionally leads to food shortages. Currently, about half of Zimbabwe 's population rely on food aid.

Mining and Energy

As agriculture is both the mining and the energy sector come to an almost complete halt. The country has to offer considerable mineral resources, including gold, platinum, nickel, copper, tin, diamonds, coal and clay minerals. Gold production in 1998 was 27.114 tons, a drop of 2007 to 7,017 tons. Gold mining, however, is associated with the release of mercury, causing increasing environmental problems. According to experts, Zimbabwe has immense potential diamonds, mainly in the east of the country, where the 68,500 -hectare Marange mine is. This is estimated at 1.7 billion U.S. dollars per year. The current energy demand can not be met by far. Zimbabwe imports electricity from South Africa ( 43%), Zambia ( 28.5%), Mozambique ( 19%) and the DRC ( 9.5% ), the import quantity is 3.3 billion kWh (2003 ). The daily import volume of crude oil amounted in the same year to 23,000 barrels.

Swell

Zimbabwe's economy data sheet of the Foreign Office
Foreign Office: Zimbabwe economy
Mirror Issue 27 /2010: ZIMBABWE - Diamonds for friends

Economy (Zimbabwe )

Zimbabwean dollar Economy of Djibouti Economy of Eritrea Economy of Gabon Economy of Guinea Economy of Madagascar Economy of Namibia Economy of Nigeria Economy of Zambia Economy of Senegal Economy of Somalia Economy of Sudan Economy of Tanzania

826582