Zimbabwe |
|
| 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.) |
| 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.) |
| 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.) |
|
|
