Africa > Zimbabwe > Economy

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Agriculture > products corn, cotton, tobacco, wheat, coffee, sugarcane, peanuts; sheep, goats, pigs
Aid as % of GDP	2.4%		[64th of 129]
Debt > External	$5,155,000,000.00		[92nd of 136]
Distribution of family income > Gini index	50.1		[2nd of 43]
Economic freedom	0.6		[154th of 156]
Economy > Overview The government of Zimbabwe faces a wide variety of difficult economic problems as it struggles with an unsustainable fiscal deficit, an overvalued official exchange rate, hyperinflation, and bare store 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. The EU and the US provide food aid on humanitarian grounds. Badly needed support from the IMF has been suspended because of the government's arrears on past loans and the government's unwillingness to enact reforms that would stabilize the economy. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe routinely prints money to fund the budget deficit, causing the official annual inflation rate to rise from 32% in 1998, to 133% in 2004, 585% in 2005, passed 1000% in 2006, and 26000% in November 2007. Private sector estimates of inflation in 2007 are well above 100,000%. Meanwhile, the official exchange rate fell from approximately 1 (revalued) Zimbabwean dollar per US dollar in 2003 to 30,000 per US dollar in 2007.
Exports	$1,520,000,000.00		[127th of 189]
GDP	$5,010,452,000.00		[122nd of 203]
GDP > Real growth rate	-5.5%		[187th of 198]
GINI index	50.1		[10th of 40]
Gross National Income	$6,164,300,000.00		[93rd of 172]
Human Development Index	0.505		[146th of 178]
Income category	Low income
Income distribution > Poorest 10%	2%		[81st of 114]
Income distribution > Richest 10%	40.4%		[19th of 114]
Population below poverty line	80%		[2nd of 46]
Population under $1 a day	36		[15th of 59]
Poverty > Share of all poor people	0.41 % of world's poor		[25th of 80]
Public debt	218.2 % of GDP		[1st of 121]
Technological achievement	0.22		[54th of 68]

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