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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 383% in 2003, and is expected to reach 700% in 2004. 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.
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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: -14.7% (2004 est.)
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purchasing power parity - $24.03 billion (2004 est.)
real growth rate: -13.6% (2004 est.)
per capita: purchasing power parity - $1,900 (2004 est.)
composition by sector: agriculture: 17.3%; industry: 24.5%; services: 58.3% (2004 est.)
Investment (gross fixed): 8.9% of GDP (2004 est.)
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revenues: $1.568 billion
expenditures: $2.004 billion, including capital expenditures of NA (2004 est.)
Public debt: 41.3% of GDP (2004 est.)
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