Zimbabwe can literally dig itself out of the spiral of economic decline.Between 1961 and 2021, the country’s gross domestic product growth averaged 2.65%.Growth has started rising above the average, but is dropping.The World Bank estimates that real GDP growth for 2022 will be 3.4%, compared to 5.8% in 2021.“Zimbabwe’s economic development continues to be hampered by price and exchange rate instability, the misallocation of productive resources, low investment, and limited structural transformation.“High inf lation, multiple exchange rates, unsustainable debt levels, and the ineffective control of public spending have increased the cost of production, reduced incentives for productivity-enhancing investment, and encouraged informality,” the World Bank states in its review of the Zimbabwean economy.Political mismanagement of the country has seen the manufacturing sector all but collapse, with the country’s Economic Complexity Index rank dropping from 56th to 98th position globally.In human terms, this means that half of Zimbabwe's 13.5 million people live below the food poverty line and about 3.5m children are chronically hungry, according to the Borgen Project.Zimbabwe does, however, have both natural and human wealth that could return it to its glory days as one of the strongest economies in Africa.The country is home to the Great Dyke, the world’s second-largest platinum and high-grade chromium deposits. It also has over 4 000 proven gold deposits.Zimbabwe also has the human capital needed to rebuild the economy – the country is one of the most literate nations in Africa, with 93.7% of those over 15 being able to read and write.In comparison, South Africa’s adult literacy rate is 87%.Gold is consistently the main export commodity (around $2.14 billion a year), followed by raw tobacco ($329m), nickel ore ($252m), diamonds ($245m), and ferro alloys ($232m).There is much more wealth under the ground – commercially exploitable deposits of around 40 different minerals have been discovered.These include lithium (of which Zimbabwe has the biggest deposit in Africa) – an essential metal for the production of electric batteries.In December 2022, the government banned the export of raw lithium in order to boost earnings by adding value at source.The main export destinations for Zimbabwean mineral and agricultural exports are United Arab Emirates ($1.92bn), South Africa ($574m), Mozambique ($369m), Uganda ($331m), and China ($193m).The most recent top imports are refined petroleum ($574m), maize ($232m), electricity ($152m), delivery trucks ($150m), and packaged medicaments ($122m).The main sources are South Africa ($2.31bn), China ($547m), Singapore ($505m), India ($172m), and Mauritius ($148m), according to the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency.
